This classic by Dr. Bronowski traces the development of human society through our understanding of science. Published in 1973 along with an innovative BBC television series, it is considered one of the first works of scientific dissemination, which illuminates the historical and social context of scientific development for a generation of readers. Bronowski analyzes the human invention from flint to geometry, from agriculture to genetics and from alchemy to the theory of relativity, showing how all of them are expressions of our ability to understand and control nature.

A journey through intellectual history in order to find "the great monuments of human invention": Easter Island, Machu Picchu, the Library of Newton and the Gauss Observatory, the Alhambra and the Caves of Altamira. In each place, Bronowski considers the qualities of thought and imagination that caused man, first, to analyze the physical world and then explore the laws and structures invisible above and below its surface. Man ascends by discovering the fullness of his own gifts, and what he creates along the way are "monuments" in the stages of his understanding of nature and himself.