The Ascent of Man

An American Film Festival Award winner, this 13 volume series attempts a massive survey of science, from flint tools to the theory of relativity.. The series, a co-production of the BBC and Time-Life Films was made as a science counterpart to "Civilization". It is given superb technical support, with two crews using innovative filming techniques, shooting in 27 countries. Dr. Jacob Bronowski makes for an unorthodox narrator, his non-scripted delivery ranging from hushed awe to trembling passion. He uses the crawling infant, the performing athlete, the development of the hunt and the discovery of fire to illustrate the most distinctive feature of man: imagination. His Scientific-Humanism is often spectacular, always provocative.. Nominated for Best Specialised Series at the BAFTA Awards. "THE ASCENT OF MAN should have a decidedly dated feel...But it doesn't...It proceeds briskly through what is by now the standard science-oriented western European version of human history – the Palaeolithic, the dawn of civilisation, the Greeks and the Romans, the Islamic empire, Galileo, Newton, the Industrial Revolution, Mendeleev, Pasteur, Darwin, Einstein and the nuclear age – and it still seems as good as any other history of discovery, and a great deal sharper...than some...the enduring freshness stems from something else... Bronowski had a gift for identifying the themes and advances that would seem just as vital 40 years on." - Tim Radford, The Guardian