Beginner's Guide to the History of Science

Previous I've written about the places to start if you're interested in the history of espionage, but don't really know where to start. Today I thought I would write a similar piece on getting started on the history of science.

The history of science is a huge field, even limiting it by excluding material that is more about the history of technology, philosophy of science, or other 'science studies.' Still, there are a lot of resources out there. I'll start by outlining some sources freely available on the Internet, then move on to some personal recommendations. As with the history of espionage recommendations, nothing here will assume any more than a basic, high school level of knowledge about either history or science.

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Books

One great place to start is the list of recommendations from the History of Science Society, which helpfully breaks things down into the following categories:

1. Reference Works [encyclopedias, dictionaries, etc.]
2. General Works and Overviews [multi-period or multi-disciplinary histories]
3. Classical Science [science in the ancient and medieval West, to c. 1500 AD]
4. Early Modern Science [the "Scientific Revolution" era, c. 1500-1700]
5. Physical Sciences since 1700 [histories of physics, chemistry, astronomy]
6. Life and Earth Sciences since 1700 [histories of biology, geology, ecology]
7. Human Sciences since 1700 [histories of psychology, anthropology, etc.]
8. Science and Society [science and institutions, laws, and governments]
9. Science and Culture [science and literature, religion, philosophy, and art]
10. Lives in Science [representative biographies of individual scientists]

If you're looking for other recommendations, a solid general tip is to try googling for a syllabus on the topic you're interested in and see what's required. For more advanced lists, you can try googling for "orals lists" - basically, history PhD students have to pass oral exams after a few years of study, in preparation for which they read dozens of the top books in their fields. For example, a search for "history science orals list" brings up options like the following:

http://www.history.ucla.edu/academics/fields-of-study/science/reading-list
http://www.sts.rpi.edu/pl/science-studies-reading-list
http://history.rutgers.edu/dmdocuments/Science,%20Techonology%20and%20Imperialism_.pdf
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Podcasts and Lecture Series

It's 2014, and as much as I love reading history books, not everyone does. So, let's talk other options!

One great option for well-researched, excellent audio content is BBC's In Our Time, which posts its episodes online for free download. Loads of these have to do with the history of science, so it's well worth your time to scan through them. Here are some particularly applicable ones:

Astronomy and Empire
Calculus - Newton vs. Leibniz
Cryptography
Darwin: Life After Origins
Darwin: On the Origin of Species
Darwin: On the Origins of Charles Darwin
Darwin: The Voyage of the Beagle
The Search for Immunisation
Lamarck and Natural Selection
The History of Pi
The Four Humours (Medical theory)
The Lunar Society
The Natural Order (Taxonomy)
The Royal Society
The Royal Society and British Science: Episode 1
The Royal Society and British Science: Episode 2
The Royal Society and British Science: Episode 3
The Royal Society and British Science: Episode 4
The Scientific Method
The Scientist - Origins and Roles

Second Law of Thermodynamics - Steam Power to Big Bang
Romanticism and Science
Science in the 20th Century
Thomas Edison
Vitalism - Search for a Spark of Life
Women and Enlightenment Science

Philosophy of Science: Karl Popper
Philosophy of Science: Baconian Science
Philosophy of Science: Empiricism
Philosophy of Science: Laws of Nature
Philosophy of Science: Logical Positivism
Philosophy of Science: History of Logic

Beyond these, here is a great interview-based podcast series called "How to Think About Science" that looks like a great introduction to a lot of philosophy and history of science and science studies topics.

A podcast called BackStory out of the University of Virginia has historians discussing American history topics, some of interest to us:
Contagion: Responding to Infectious Disease
Science and Religion in America
Jefferson: Then and Now (Pt 1)
Jefferson: Then and Now (Pt 2)
A History of Health Care
The Idea of Racial Purity
Environmental Crisis in America

Finally, some audio lecture series on iTunes U, freely available:
History of Modern Physics, as taught by Prof. Cathryn Carson of UC Berkeley, Spring 2008
Oxford University Museum of the History of Science lecture series
New Books in Science, Technology, and Society - Hear about the cutting edge of the history of science and technology from the authors of new books themselves

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Documentaries

The Day After Trinity
A documentary about the development of the atomic bomb, the efforts of scientists to organize and gain political influence regarding the development of atomic weaponry, and the costs of those efforts for Robert Oppenheimer, "father of the atomic bomb."

Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery
Directed by Ken Burns, gives an overview of the history of one of the most important scientific expeditions in American history.