In the 1960s there was an increasing awareness that science should be presented visually  in relation to social history and the challenges and complexities of the modern world.  Aldus Books was one of the first publishers to respond to these issues with a series of lavishly illustrated books entitled Library of Modern Knowledge.  The first was 'Man Nature and History' published in 1967.  The author, W.M.S. Russell broke new ground in producing a survey of cultural evolution.  This book was described as 'a masterly survey of  man's attempts to become independent of his natural environment by controlling it.  The publishers followed this with J.A. Lauwery's 'Man's Impact on Nature' in 1969 which was slanted towards the need to control the deleterious effects of human population growth.  This interdisciplinary trend to present cultural evolution and its consequences to 'the man in the street'  culminated in the BBC television series 'The Ascent of Man', written and presented by the mathematician, Jacob Bronowski.  The three approaches to human history through its scientific achievements and their social impacts covered similar ground, and differed only in the emphasis placed upon issues reflecting personal views on events and their cultural importance.  Fred Hoyle's response to Man, Nature and History was:

Episodes of 'The Ascent of Man: A Personal View by J. Bronowski' were previewed for the press and VIPs at the Royal Society on Thursday 26 April, 1973.  The first episode entitled Lower than Angels, was transmitted by BBC 2 at 9 o'clock on Saturday 5 May.  The critical reaction to the series was overwhelmingly positive.

Bronowski's objective was to fulfil his 'ambition to create a philosophy for the 20th century which shall be all of one place. One part of that is to teach people to command science- to have command of the basic ideas of modern science, so that they can  take command of its use'

This mind map is a re-formatting of the main sections of 'The Ascent of Man' to provide a simpler ideational scaffold for studying the cultural evolution of humankind.  It provides twelve views of the cultural progression of Homo sapiens from the point of view of the sequence of behavioural adaptations to managing the extraction and use of environmental resources.

The content of the original 13 episodes were summarised as follows:

Dr Jacob Bronowski opens the first programme at the Great Rift Valley of East Africa and traces the evolution of man's unique gifts- foresight and imagination.  He follows man from Africa through desert and Ice Age.

Dr Bronowski traces man's progress from nomadic pasturage to settled agriculture, with the domestication of the horse and cultivation of wheat.

The wondering nomads cease their migrations and settle in townships, learning new skills,  Here, Dr Bronowski discovers the origins of science in the interaction of hand and eye.

Dr Bronowski examines man's probing of the hidden structure below the visible world.  The programme follows the evolution of chemistry from early Chinese metallurgists to Dalton's atomic theory.

Mathematics is a way of describing the world that we see, hear and touch.  Dr Bronowski looks at the interlocking of numbers and nature in the descriptions of musical harmony, early astronomy and perspectives in painting.

From earliest time man has wondered at the movement of the stars sun and planets.  In this programme Dr Bronowski looks at the work of Copernicus and the life, work and trial of Galileo, who expounded and developed his ideas.

If the world and its character could be clearly understood by tow men only, they might well be Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein.  Dr Bronowski brings their two worlds to life and shows how their theories are connected by light.

This programme looks at revolution and power in the eighteenth century.  As political revolution shook France and America another quieter, yet more profound restructuring was taking place in Britain- the Industrial Revolution.

This programme looks at the findings of two naturalists living in Victorian times.  The tropical adventures of Alfred Russell Wallace triggered off the ideas of the more famous Charles Darwin.  These were later reinforced by Louis Pasteur.

Dr Bronowski tells the story of the men and ideas that gave concrete expression to the invisible, intangible structure that lies beneath all matter.  The discovery of the atom. electrons, neutrons and quantum mechanics.

Continuing Dr Bronowski's personal view of man's major discoveries and the evolution of his thought.  This programme highlights the achievement of twentieth century physics in proving that absolute certainty inside or outside science is beyond our grasp.

Dr Bronowski follows the history of genetics from the lonely experiments of Gregor Mendel, to the discovery of the structure of DNA.  He argues that we should see human sexuality as a gift preserving the diversity of our species.

In this final programme, Dr Bronowski draws together the ideas he has explored in the series.  He takes stock of man's ascent and, by looking at the facilities that differentiate man from animals, discusses man's growth to self- knowledge.