JACOB BRONOWSKI

'Jacob Bronowski' (January 18 1908, Łódź, Congress Poland, Russian Empire - August 22 1974, East Hampton, New York, U.S.) was a British mathematician of Polish-Jewish origin, best known as the presenter of the BBC television documentary series, ''The Ascent of Man''.

Contents

Life and Work

Books

External links

References

Life and Work

Jacob Bronowski was born in Łódź, Congress Poland on January 18 1908. His family moved to Germany during the First World War, and then to England in 1920. Although, according to Bronowski, he knew only two English words on arriving in Great Britain^[1], he gained admission to the Central Foundation School in London and went on to study at the University of Cambridge.
As a mathematics student at Jesus College, Cambridge, Bronowski co-edited — with William Empson — the literary periodical ''Experiment'', which first appeared in 1928. Bronowski would pursue this sort of dual activity, in both the mathematical and literary worlds, throughout his professional life. He was also a strong chess player, earning a half-blue while at Cambridge^[2]. He received a Ph.D. in mathematics in 1935, writing a dissertation in algebraic geometry. From 1934 to 1942 he taught mathematics at the then University College of Hull. For a time in the 1930s he lived near Laura Riding and Robert Graves in Majorca.
During the Second World War Bronowski worked in operations research, and afterwards became Director of Research for the National Coal Board (UK). Following his experiences as an official observer of the after-effects of the Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombings, he turned to biology, as did his friend Leo Szilard, to better understand the nature of violence. Bronowski was an associate director of the Salk Institute from 1964.
Jacob Bronowski married Rita Coblentz in 1941. The couple had four children, all daughters, the eldest being the British academic Lisa Jardine.
He first became familiar to the British public through appearances on BBC's ''The Brains Trust'' in the late 1950s, but is better known for his monumental series, ''The Ascent of Man''. This was an inspiration for Carl Sagan to make '' in 1980. During the making of ''The Ascent of Man'', Bronowski was interviewed by Michael Parkinson, and Bronowski's description of a visit to Auschwitz — he had lost many family members during the Nazi era — was described by Parkinson as one of his most memorable interviews.
Jacob Bronowski died in 1974 in East Hampton, New York, a year after ''The Ascent of Man'' was completed, and was buried in the western side of London's Highgate Cemetery, near the entrance.

Books

★ ''The Poet's Defence'' (1939)

★ ''William Blake: A Man Without a Mask'' (1943)

★ ''The Common Sense of Science'' (1951)

★ ''The Face of Violence'' (1954)

★ ''Science and Human Values'' (1956)

★ ''The Western Intellectual Tradition, From Leonardo to Hegel'' (1960) - with Bruce Mazlish

★ ''Biography of an Atom'' (1963) - with Millicent Selsam

★ ''Insight'' (1964)

★ ''The Identity of Man'' (1965)

★ ''Nature and Knowledge: The Philosophy of Contemporary Science'' (1969)

★ ''William Blake and the Age of Revolution'' (1972)

★ ''The Ascent of Man'' (1974)

★ ''A Sense of the Future'' (1977)

★ ''Magic Science & Civilization'' (1978)

★ ''The Origins of Knowledge and Imagination'' (1978)

★ ''The Visionary Eye: Essays in the Arts, Literature and Science'' (1979) - edited by Piero Ariotti and Rita Bronowski

External links

★ Has biography, pictures, and obituary.

★ The Jacob Bronowski Archive

★ ''The Thought of Jacob Bronowski in his Essays and in the Ascent of Man''

★ Video of chapters from ''The Ascent of Man'' - selections vary, not all chapters posted

References

1. Bronowski, J. ''The Common Sense of Science''. (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts: 1967), p. 8.
2. http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/index.html#3929._Bogoljubow_v_Alekhine_Hastings.