The history of science

One of the absolute best courses I ever took was the History of Economic Thought as a college senior majoring in economics. Understanding how the theory of economics evolved to its current state was a tremendous benefit in helping to tie the subject all together. It helped place economics into context with the politics and history with which it is always inextricably intertwined.

Hugh Hewitt discusses a book which sounds like it does the same thing for science. If the book is, in fact, a "history" of science, it would be a great book for students. Understanding how and why we came to learn scientific facts would go a long way to helping non-scientists put it all in context.