The Ascent of Man (1973) was a groundbreaking BBC documentary series, produced in association with Time-Life Films, produced by Adrian Malone, and written and presented by Jacob Bronowski.

Overview

The 13-part series was shot on 16mm film. Executive Producer was Adrian Malone, film directors Dick Gilling, Mick Jackson, David Kennard, David Paterson. Malone and Kennard later emigrated to Hollywood, where they produced Carl Sagan's Cosmos. Jackson followed them, and now directs feature films.

The title alludes to The Descent of Man by Charles Darwin. Over the series' thirteen episodes, Bronowski travelled around the world in order to trace the development of human society through its understanding of science. It was written specifically to complement Kenneth Clark's Civilisation (1969), in which Clark argued that art was a major driving force in cultural evolution. Bronowski wrote in his 1951 book "The Commonsense of Science" : "It has been one of the most destructive modern prejudices that art and science are different and somehow incompatible interests". Both series had been commissioned by David Attenborough, then controller of BBC2, although he had moved on by the time The Ascent of Man aired. Quotations were read by actors Roy Dotrice and Joss Ackland.

The book of the series, The Ascent of Man: A Personal View by J. Bronowski, is an almost word-for-word transcript from the original television episodes, diverging from Bronowski's original narration only where the lack of images might make its meaning unclear. A few details of the film version were omitted from the book: notably, Part 11, "Knowledge or Certainty," begins by showing the face of Stefan Borgrajewicz as an elderly man who had known suffering; at the end, after Bronowski shows us the ruins of Hiroshima and the ash-strewn pond of Auschwitz, we see a photograph of a younger man, with the name "BOR-GRAJEWICZ, Stefan" and the number 125558, which may be his official record in the archives of Auschwitz.

Just over a year after the series appeared, Bronowski died of a heart attack aged 66.

Series outline

Part 1: Lower than the Angels
A multitude of evolutionary changes - anatomical and intellectual - gives rise to man's superiority among the animals. New computer techniques illustrate humanity's evolution, while x-ray and slow motion photography of an Olympic athlete in action show the complex interweaving of mind and body.

Part 2: The Harvest of the Seasons
Man domesticates plant and animal life. With the Neolithic cultivators come the nomads and the roots of warfare. Cameras capture the unique lifestyle of the Bakhtiari tribe of central Iran and there recreate the war games of Genghis Khan.

Part 3: The Grain in the Stone
Man splits a stone and reassembles the pieces to build a wall, a cathedral, a city. From the Greek temples of Paestum and the cathedrals of medieval France to modern Los Angeles, this film expresses humanity's faith and fancy as architect and builder.

Part 4: The Hidden Structure
The Shang bronze craftsmen of China and the Samurai swordsmith of Japan are the starting point for this journey, which leads from the beginnings of chemistry to Dalton's atomic theory and our knowledge of the elements.

Part 5: Music of the Spheres
Traces the evolution of mathematics and explores the relationship of numbers to musical harmony, early astronomy and perspective in painting. It follows the spread of Greek ideas through the courts and bazaars of the Islamic Empire to Moorish Spain and Renaissance Europe.

Part 6: The Starry Messenger
Here is the story of early attempts to map the forces that move the planets. Dr. Bronowski traces the origins of the scientific revolution through the conflict between fact and religious dogma, culminating in the trial of Galileo.

Part 7: The Majestic Clockwork
In the evolution of physics, the contributions of Newton and Einstein occupy center stage. This film explores the revolution that ensued when Einstein's theory of relativity upset Newton's elegant description of the universe.

Part 8: The Drive for Power
Industrial and political revolutions altered concepts of power during the 18th century. Dr. Bronowski shows why these developments were as significant as the Renaissance in our progress.

Part 9: The Ladder of Creation
Journeys from the valleys and waterfalls of Wales to the jungles of the Amazon to explore the controversy swirling around a startling new theory of evolution developed simultaneously by Alfred Wallace and Charles Darwin.

Part 10: World within World
Commencing with a visit to an ancient Polish salt mine, Dr. Bronowski looks at the world inside the atom, tracing the history of ideas that have made 20th century physics "the greatest achievement of the human imagination."

Part 11: Knowledge or Certainty
Dr. Bronowski offers his personal view of the moral dilemma that confronts today's scientist, contrasting humanist traditions with the inhumanities of the Nazis, the harnessing of nuclear energy with the development of the atomic bomb.

Part 12: Generation upon Generation
Examines the complex code of human inheritance - from the experiments of pioneer geneticist Gregor Mendel to the discoveries of today's sophisticated laboratories.

Part 13: The Long Childhood
In this closing film, Dr. Bronowski draws together the many threads of the series as he takes stock of humanity's complex and sometimes precarious ascent.