How was the earth first populated? How big can an empire get? What causes a civilization to decline? How does body type affect a culture? These and other fascinating topics are explored in From Apes to Apps, a collection of twenty-five original essays penned by Jason Ripper. The subjects are high-interest and addressed from a global and comparative perspective. These topics demonstrate to the reader through cultural comparisons the differences and similarities that are characteristic of and form the essence of the human experience. The essays cover a variety of themes, in particular, social, cultural, economic, biological, and technological issues. They reflect concepts and questions that span civilizations and time. The essays are chronologically arranged, fast-paced narratives that use storytelling techniques to heighten reader interest. History is presented as an intriguing account of the rise of world civilizations.
The topics covered represent a wide variety of exploration and range in scope from the populating of the earth, animal and plant domestication: a better lifestyle, gender roles in antiquity, trade routes and intercultural exchanges, plagues and their consequences, yearning for the dream world, communication technology, to migration and the peopling of today's world.