The Ascent of Man

US: Little Brown, 1973. Paperback. Good. The Ascent of Man is nothing less than a full-scale history of science dev eloped from the acclaimed thirteen-part BBC television series written by Ja cob Bronowski, and traces the development of science as an expression of th e special gifts that characterize man and that have made him unique among a nimal species. It journeys back through intellectual history in order to fi nd 'the great monuments of human invention.' The author's informal history ranges throughout most of the western world, reaching into such out-of-the way places as Easter Island, Machu Picchu, Newton's library and Gauss's obs ervatory, the Alhambra and the caves of Altamira. In each location, Bronows ki considers the qualities of thought and imagination that compelled man fi rst to analyze the physical world, and then to explore the invisible laws a nd structures above and beneath its surface. "Man ascends by discovering th e fullness of his own gifts ... what he creates on the way are monuments to the stages in his understanding of nature and of self."--.