Customer Reviews

The Ascent of Man

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One of my all time favorite books from college that is definitely a keeper and still relevent after all these years. If you read each chapter and view the corresponding video text it produce sa truly amazing insight into the development of mankinds knowledge. Similiar in style to "Connections" it is quite possibly more engrossing. The book is a fascinating journey , written in a style that illuminates the darkest and distant passages of time with lucidity and foresight. My personal favorite chapter(6) was The Starry Messenger which was eventually about(like knowledge Bronowski builds on the past) Galileo and his relationship with the Catholic Church as a result of his theories.I love this book and the understanding it gave me to subjects I felt less than interested in. This book has the power to make even the most abstract and esoteric theories interesting. A beautiful book that puts all the knowledge of the past into perspective in an entertaining manner that can lead a young mind into areas of interest they may never have persued. The book is also full of richly detailed photographs, full color prints and other visual aids that further explain the topic duscussed.I would recommened this book for any young student in high school or approaching college who is even remotely interested in the connections between science and the evolution of mankind. A great gift idea for that budding scientist or historian on your list.

Jacob Bronowski was a genuine Renaissance man. This, his most famous book, looks at the history of science from the perspective of Bronowski's deep, humanist philosophy. Bronowski--along with C.P. Snow--saw art and science as two aspects of the same human enterprise: that of understanding the world and expressing that world in human terms. Here Bronowski shows those connections: why Mendeleev's periodic table was part of "the greatest collective work of art" in history--that is, physics; why the Watts Towers of Los Angeles are like the molecules in a copper wire. THE ASCENT OF MAN is a symphony for which SCIENCE AND HUMAN VALUES was merely a prelude. An outstanding, and vitally important book. "I am infinitely saddened," Bronowski writes, "to find myself suddenly surrounded in the West by a terrible loss of nerve." We must not turn our backs on science--we must finally discover it. One of those writers whose every page contains a brilliant idea, Bronowksi is well worth reading. See also SCIENCE AND HUMAN VALUES, THE IDENTITY OF MAN, THE VISIONARY EYE, and my favorite, A SENSE OF THE FUTURE.

I grew in my teens watching, rerun after rerun, Jacob Bronowski's TV series "The Ascent of Man", from which I took my love for science; science as a very human activity, beautifully described by Mr Bronowski, and his words have well resisted the test of time as I read this book based on the series, and which I inevitably lend to anyone I know who have a thirst for the adventure of knowledge.

Other reviews in the section may give you a good idea of the content of this book. I would rather give you an idea of the impact that Bronowski had on one life.

When I was a small boy living in London over 25 years ago, my father used to take me to the Science Museum in South Kensington almost every Saturday to attend the afternoon lectures. One Saturday it was not a lecture that we attended but a film by a gentleman named Jacob Bronowski. I sat mesmorised by the episode of the 'Ascent of Man' that was shown that afternoon. I understood much of the science which was being discussed and already had a good grounding in the subject. But within the despcription of man's pursuit of understanding was a humanity that I had never experienced before. At the end of the film, Bronowski crouched by a pond in a concentration camp and scooped a handful of ashes from the pool of water and, fixing his steady eye on the camera, said, 'I beseech you in the bowels of Christ, consider you may be wrong'. Bronowski was quoting Cromwell, but in that brief moment was encapsulated the escence of science, humanity, art,and understanding. The Ascent of Man, in the 1970s an attempt to bring a deeper and wider understanding of science and humanity to the public, is now confined to Open University television schedules. The book remains available to all. It is a revelation. Bronowski was a giant. Read this book and you may come closer to an understanding of the world around you, but when you finally put it down, having formed an opinion,'consider you may be wrong'. As for me, I went on to study physics as a first degree and the arts as a higher degree. I share Bronowski's atheism but there is never a day that passes or an opinion I offer when I do not heed that advice and question the world around me.

I have read many books which have permanently enriched my life, but I believe this is the best one. It intertwines history, science, philosophy, and human values in a fasinating story of mankind. No dry theories, this book contains dramatic stories of man struggling to develop into what? That is the true beauty of this book. It asks (and I believe answers) what it is to be truly human - what it is we are struggling to develop into.

This is a fascinating book that grew out of a fascinating TV series. The Ascent of Man attempts to follow the ascendancy of Mankind from his first evolutionary footsteps in pre-history through each significant cultural progression right up into the modern day, which was 1973, the date of publication of this book. Bronowski had a brilliant intellect and a huge knowledge of science and the arts. He also had a gift of articulating his knowledge in such a way as to make it, not only assessable, but interesting. Nowhere were his gifts put to better use than in this book. Chapter by chapter, he takes us through the ascent of Man, starting from the Stone Age caves of Altamira and through into agriculture; the discovery of fire and the elements; Pythagoras and mathematics; Copernicus, Galileo and astrology; Newton and Einstein; the Industrial Revolution; Darwin, Wallace and Natural Selection; Gregor Mendel and the discovery of Genetics, and into the final chapter, The Long Childhood, where Bronowski argues that science is "the recognition of the uniqueness of man, and a pride in his gifts and works. It is not the business of science to inherit the earth, but to inherit the moral imagination; because without that man and beliefs and science will perish together." It's a giddy but satisfying journey.

There are parts that I did not understand; but most of it I did. This is not heavy reading. Bronowski had a real literary touch. Take this for example: "Man is a singular creature. He has a set of gifts which make him unique among the animals; so that, unlike them, he is not a figure in the landscape - he is a shaper of the landscape." These two beautiful sentences set the tone and the subject of the book perfectly, and it is a standard that never lapses. Consider this descriptive piece of writing: "The sleeping hedgehog waits for the spring to burst its metabolism into life. The humming bird beats the air and dips its needle-fine beak into hanging blossoms. Butterflies mimic leaves and even noxious creatures to deceive the predators. The mole plods through the ground as if he had been designed as a mechanical shuttle." How many literary artists wish they could write as well?

What makes this book work so well is the human touch. We not only learn about the discovery that the Earth is not the centre of the Universe, but we learn about the men, Copernicus and Galileo, as men, about the times they lived in, and the effect that their discovery had upon that world. As I know little about science, I cannot comment on the accuracy of his statements, although he seems to have attracted little in the way of criticism from those, who presumably, know their subject; but I can comment on his humanity, a subject, I like to think, I am able to comment on. "The monomaniac culture of conquest; the predator posing as a hero because he rides the whirlwind. But the whirlwind is empty. Horse or tank, Genghis Khan or Hitler or Stalin, it can only feed on the labours of other men." For some reason, this phrase from Bronowski has haunted my mind since I first read this book in 1975. There have been writers who have commented on the hollowness of great men, but no one, as far as I am aware, has put it as succinctly as that. Bronowski's death in the 70s, shortly after The Ascent of Man was completed, was a great loss. There has been no one to replace him. Read this lavishly illustrated book, revel in the literary gifts and the brilliant intellect of Bronowski, and expand your own knowledge.

If there is a message in this book, it is a very optimistic one: Human beings matter. At some point during the late quaternary period, roughly 2 million years ago, a new creature appeared which had the ability to understand its own existence. The hand of man has literally changed everything, mostly for the better, Bronowski contends.

The scope of this book is vast; from the primitive hend-tool makers of the stone age, to the complex organization builders of the modern age, humans have evolved, and their ability to create has advanced.

There is also an important warning to people not to forget their biological and evolutionary roots. An atheist, Bronowski understood the value of life on earth, and the need for each successive generation of people to transmit the knowledge of culture, science, and technology to future generations. The last chapter states that, if we humans are to continue the Ascent, we must be prepared to invest more in our children.

Like all secularists, Bronowski understood that no god was going to 'save' humanity nor mourn humanity's destruction (should that ever come to pass), just as no god had created humanity. There never were, and are not now, future lives, there is only this life. Whatever the pretensions of humanity are, we are forever tied to the physical universe in which our DNA, and other matter exists.

If we want a better world, we need to make it ourselves. And to do that, we need to understand the theory and application of science. The book makes a strong, but subtle case for scientific thinking, learning, and the value of technology in making a better world.

''The Ascent of Man'' neatly complements ''The Western intellectual Tradition''. While the latter book looked at the role of great ideas in shaping civilizations and driving revolutions, the former looks at roles played by the technologies and science which developed in many civilizations, that often interacted with great ideas.

Because of America's phobia when it comes to secular, atheistic i! deas, Bronowski was forced to state that his PBS TV series was "a personal view". While that was not untrue, Bronowski's personal views are also those of many others, most of whom probably share his love of learning and find joy in the acts of invention and discovery.

-Brian Lynch

Previous reviews don't do Bronowski justice. He began as a mathematician; but after being sent to Hiroshima, as part of a team studying the aftereffects of the nuclear blast, he switched to biology. He was warm and articulate. A poet himself, he was one of the few people who truly understood the English poet William Blake, although (unlike most of his writing) his essays about Blake could use some explaining themselves. He was a highly moral man and did two original things you don't see many others even attempting: He saw the "doing" of science as an act every bit as creative as composing a symphony or writing a poem -- and he explained it in that way -- and he sought a structure for rationalizing morality and ethical behavior that did not rely upon religious precepts. The Ascent of Man is a very personal work, and it says so in its subtitle. It pretty much echos word for word what Jacob Bronowski spoke extemporaneously as he was sent around the world to the places he needed to be in order to explain the ideas he needed to express as he filmed his material for public television. Ironically, I said that very badly: I meant that HE could explain very complex notions with terrific elegance and simplicity. Period. By the way, the process of making the series for TV must have taken a toll, as JB died not long after completing the necessary travels. The Ascent of Man is all excellent but has many especially moving moments. Only one example occurred when JB walked fully clothed and shod into a pond at Auschwitz in acknowledgment of family and friends and fellow countrymen whose ashes were dumped there by fascists who laid claim to a handle on absolute certainty. Read this topnotch book, then find more by him. And if you're thirsty for more, try a little Loren Eisely as well. The accomplishments of humankind as explained by thoughtful scientists can prove wonderfully exhiliarating.

This was used as a text for my first year engineering course on Knowledge, Values & Technology. We also watched the videos once a week. Most of the class used the time to eat lunch or take a snooze but I was absolutely entranced. Jake really knew how to get to the pith. The course was essentially an introduction to ethics and it served as my introduction to the great philosophers of all time. An awakening to how human achievement comes from hard work and the odd bit of serendipity.

If you're looking for a book that will show you how man made it from day 1 to the present, while encomapssing ALL disciplines and not science alone, you've found the right book! It's is incredible how simply and interestengly Mr. Bronowski has accomplished such a feat. You won't be able to put it down!