I haven’t seen that one, but it’s on the mark. The Chinese invented gunpower and many other things, but they never really went anywhere with these discoveries, and they vanished.
Similarly, Rome invented the water wheel, the first and most important industrial machine, before the steam engine, but never really did anything with it.
Lynn Thorndike has several excellent books on the rise of science in the middle ages. Yes, it happened earlier than most historians of science will admit.
But the best single book is Understanding Europe, by Christopher Dawson. His other books are all well worth reading, too, but I think that one gets to the heart of it.