BBC - Ascent of Man (1973).txt
The Ascent of Man.
Author/Presenter: J Bronowski
Dr Bronowski's magnificent thirteen-part BBC television series The Ascent of Man traced our rise both as a species and as moulders of our own environment and future. This is the book of the programmes. It covers the history of science, but of science in the broadest terms. Invention from the flint tool to geometry, from the arch to the theory of relativity, are shown to be expressions of man's specific ability to understand nature, to control it, not to be controlled by it.
Dr Bronowski's rare grasp not only of science, but also of its historical and social context, gave him great advantages as an historian of ideas. It is a book which gives us a new perspective not just on science, but on civilisation.
Lower than the Angels
The Harvest of the Seasons
The Grain in the Stone
The Hidden Structure
Music of the Spheres
The Starry Messenger
The Majestic Clockwork
The Drive for Power
The Ladder of Creation
World within World
Knowledge or Certainty
Generation upon Generation
The Long Childhood
Lower Than The Angels
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The Harvest Of The Seasons
In the long spring following the Ice Ages man develops agriculture and domesticates animals, imposing his will on wild wheat and horses. With the Neolithic cultivators come the mounted Nomads, the predators, and the roots of human warfare. Shot largely in central Iran.
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The Grain In The Stone
Man splits a stone and reassembles the pieces to build a wall, a cathedral, a city. This program is about man, the architect, builder, and sculptor. Shots of Greek temples of Paestum, cathedrals of medieval France, Inca cities of Peru juxtaposed with shots of modern cities.
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The Hidden Structure
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Music Of The Spheres
Program covers the evolution of math. Pythagoras, father of Greek math, considered numbers the language of nature. Follows spread of Greek ideas through the Islamic Empire to Moorish Spain and Renaissance Europe. Explores the alliance of math to music, astronomy, and painting.
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The Starry Messenger
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The Majestic Clockwork
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The Drive For Power
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The Ladder Of Creation
From the countryside of Wales to the jungles of the Amazon, follows the stories of Alfred Russell Wallace and Charles Darwin who had the same idea simultaneously - evolution by natural selection. Their ideas helped others to probe the nature and origins of life.
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World Within World
In the vaults of ancient Polish salt mines Bronowski embarks on a journey to the hidden world inside the atom. He traces the history of the men and the ideas that made 20th century physics the greatest achievement of the human imagination.
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Knowledge Or Certainty
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Generation Upon Generation
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The Long Childhood
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Above summaries from www.sfsu.edu/~avitv/AV.mediacatalog.html
Steve Goodey
Revised: 26-03-2005. (dd/mm/yr)
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