To include art and music and culture would make the story too cumbersome and long. The tale of how human beings have organized themselves in separate independent societies that sometimes cooperate but more often clash with one another needs to be told on its own if it is to be told at a manageable length. A quarter-century ago Jacob Bronowski did the world a favor by offering us his interpretation of mankind's development through a television documentary and book titled The Ascent of Man . Fromkin is no less positive about human achievement, although he warns that irony is the stuff of history, that none of the giant steps we have taken as a species were preordained or inevitable. Optimism, he warns, should never cloud our vision.
Regressions are frequent.
And yet, he argues, the eight steps he says we have taken were undeniably eight steps up, in the right direction. Tony Freemantle is a reporter for the Chronicle.