Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond bravely asks why some cultures have made great leaps in technology while others haven't. Diamond traces this disparity back into pre-history where some groups benefited from a great abundance of animals and plants that were suitable for domestication.

This work has had an incredible effect in the area of cultural evolution. It has inspired many other great works along these lines, including Yuval Harari's "Sapiens" and Joseph Henrich's "The WEIRDest People in the World".