“Guns, Germs, and Steel” by Jared Diamond. Perhaps some of you remember the PBS series, it is a brief treatment of the points made in the book. It attempts to answer how certain areas of the world prospered, while other areas remained stagnant until the prosperous parts of the world conquered them.
Diamond also wrote a book "Collapse" which was equally fascinating.
I could not help thinking about "Atlas Shrugged" while I was reading it.