Customer Reviews
Inspiring and uplifting - By: Peter Jones, 04 Sep 2007 
Writtenin the seventies, when people thought logic & science could solve everything, this is a passionatley written history of mankind. It reminds me of those post-war children's encyclopaedias: it always inspires you to want to find out more, & leaves you feeling there is hopein the future & lessons to be learnt from history.
A book that changed lives - By: Roy Everitt, 22 Jun 2006 
I well remember buying this book for myself, very soon after publication, backin 1974. The television series had amazed & enlightened me, & to have Dr Bronowski's wordsin my own hands seemed a great privilege. His clarity of thought & of explanation, & his overwhelming humanity made him a hero to me & a model for many imitators who followed.
Quite simply, this was a landmark book & one I treasure to this day. If some of the science has been overturned (and very little has) the essence is as vital as ever.
I intended giving this four stars, merely because it's over 30 years old & must surely have dated, but I see it hasn't at all, so I'm giving it five.
A remarkable time in history - By: B. Chandler, 20 Jun 2005 Nowadays many different books have been written to explain the unfolding of humans & civilization. This book covers many great products & inventors instead of all the great wars. In the 1970s this was unique to the public. And this book is the template for those to follow.
The contents include:
• Lower than the Angles (evolution of the head)
• The Harvest of the Seasons (the pace of cultural evolution)
• The Grainin the Stone (blood group evidence of migration)
• The Hidden Structure (fire)
• The Music of the Spheres (the language of numbers)
• The Starry Messenger (the cycle of seasons)
• The majestic Clockwork (Kepler's laws)
• The Drive for Power (Everyday technology)
• The ladder of Creation (are other formulas of life possible?)
• World Within World (the periodic table)
• Knowledge of Certainty (There is no absolute knowledge)
• Generation upon generation (cloning of identical forms)
• The Long Childhood (The commitment of man)
I have the original hardback book, reference book, & study guide. The local library still has the original videotapes. You have to be an institution to purchase them.
Great news the DVD set is now availablein PAL format which should play on any computer regardless of region or format.
This is a humanities course at the local collage. An added plus was getting to actually go through the Watts Towers as a kid. This work does rings around "Connections" by James Burke because it is the story of the people behind the connections.
I am not saying that this book replaces others, but that it has more to say with out resorting to today's sound byte system of writing.
A book which celebrates doubt and vision - By: Budge Burgess, 03 Mar 2005 The book of the television series (and now DVD release) which broke new groundin the delivery of historical & scientific analysis. Well-written, accessible, & comprehensively illustrated, it nevertheless lacks the power & impact of the broadcast & can be best enjoyed as an accompaniment to the series rather than as a substitute for it.
Bronowski presents his investigation of the development of civilisationin thematic form, exploring the waysin which the inexplicable have been explained & efforts made, if not to tame the world, at least to grapple with its explanation. He shows how the human mind has grownin vision, from the domestication of animals & grain, to the taming of fire, the understanding of the planetary system, & the manipulation of numbers.
The television series was an epic, a gripping & absorbing experience. Bronowski, demonstrated that he could communicate the complex, & this is equally true of the book. It does not, however, have the dynamism or excitement of the series. It does present Bronowski's greatest contribution, his emphasis that the true dynamic of science is not explanation but uncertainty: science is about questioning, about overturning assumed certainties. The true worth of civilisation isin promoting intolerance of ignorance.
Bronowski demonstrates that enlightenment has been hard won; however, if we view the human mind as capable of shining light into the darkness of ignorance, that mind can easily be misled. When he explores the nature of the concentration camp, he reminds us how easily the mind can be deluded, how illusory & ephemeral civilisation can be.
'The Ascent of Man' does not offer a comprehensive history of civilisation, but rather Bronowski's vision of the importance of doubt, of investigation, & the need to constantly question. It blends history with scientific inquiry & invites you to take a fresh perspective, to understand how explanation can appear certain one moment & be seen as total illusion the next. It's a book which entertains & revitalises your perception of the world & its history, but, overall, it's a book which should encourage you to question & challenge. And it's also a book, I hope, which will encourage you to go & view the television series, which has lost none of its vitality & compassion despite the years.
A remarkable time in history - By: B. Chandler, 22 May 2003 Nowadays many different books have been written to explain the unfolding of humans & civilization. This book covers many great products & inventors instead of all the great wars. In the 1970s this was unique to the public. And this book is the template for those to follow.
The contents include:
' Lower than the Angles (evolution of the head)
' The Harvest of the Seasons (the pace of cultural evolution)
' The Grainin the Stone (blood group evidence of migration)
' The Hidden Structure (fire)
' The Music of the Spheres (the language of numbers)
' The Starry Messenger (the cycle of seasons)
' The majestic Clockwork (Kepler's laws)
' The Drive for Power (Everyday technology)
' The ladder of Creation (are other formulas of life possible?)
' World Within World (the periodic table)
' Knowledge of Certainty (There is no absolute knowledge)
' Generation upon generation (cloning of identical forms)
' The Long Childhood (The commitment of man)
I have the original hardback book, reference book, & study guide. The local library still has the original videotapes. You have to be an institution to purchase them. This is a humanities course at the local collage. An added plus was getting to actually go through the Watts Towers as a kid. This work does rings around "Connections" by James Burke ISBN: 0316116726 because it is the story of the people behind the connections.
I am not saying that this book replaces others, but that it has more to say with out resorting to today's sound byte system of writing.
