The Ascent of Man Paperback by Jacob Bronowski (Author), Richard Dawkins (Foreword) (BBC Books)

Jacob Bronowski's The Ascent of Man was one of several documentary style miniseries that created a market for and set the standard for thoughtful television programs of the type we should expect from the History Channel or Arts and Entertainment. The Ascent of Man along with the Civilization Series, Connections, and Cosmos proved that there was a large market for intellectually challenging and enlightening discussion extending over many weeks and many topics. These were not the first efforts in this direction, I can remember Leonard Bernstein doing televised lectures about music some time before the above mentioned programs but these took hold and proved that there was in fact a market for quality programming.

This however is a review of a text only version. This book reprodes Prof. Bronowski's lectures with very few of the visuals. In these lectures, rather 13 chapters the reader is taken from the beginning of man as a social, culturally artistic and technologically inventive being up into at least the 1970s, when this book was first published, and what was then emerging as the DNA driven understanding of human biology.

I am deeply impressed with the depth and breath of the authors intellect plus his immense skill with English. He was Polish born and did not come to English until he was much older. His original background shifted from a specialty in the mathematics of physics into a later career in biology while gaining recognition as a poet, historian, philosopher and (this is new to me) a "theater author". All of these skills were powerfully displayed in the television series and this is the source of my reservation over a fifth star for the book. My memories of this program from almost 30 years ago are tied to what were then some very high-tech graphics. The absence of the visuals affected my ability to appreciate the text. The power of Bronowski's language is here; unfortunately the text has not been scrubbed of all references to the images not carried over into the text.

Others have mentioned that science is moved forward, indeed leaped forward since this text was put in print. It is remarkable how much of what is here remains valid in itself or at least as a document of where our understanding was before it got to where it is. The very name of the book suggests that human progress his ongoing. A major theme of this book is that a failure to press ahead represents an ending for that culture but not an ending for human progress.

Accepting that some of the science is dated, my recommendation is based on the powerful use of language and the opportunity to spend time with a deeply thoughtful and passionate thinker