I was just thinking about how historically the East (India + China) were the richer parts of the world but then suddenly they were eclipsed by the West. The thought led me to read up stuff on the internet about it but I would prefer a scholarly take on it without getting too simplistic in explaining the trend.
And I hope some of you can recommend good solid history books on the matter.
There are a number of books dedicated to the subject. If you check out the Master books list you will see Why the West Rules, For Now by Ian Morris which discusses it in detail. Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel also tries to answer the same question using a slightly different methodology due to his academic background (however if you've been on this sub for long you'll know that it is a controversial book).
I'm about a third of the way through the former and I read most of the latter before getting a bit annoyed by it and stopping. If you want an archaeologist/anthropologist's view on it definitely go for Morris's book.
EDIT: Right on cue, there is a discussion on Diamond's books on the sub.