Dear Kevin,  
     
  If you will allow me some self-advertising. Erik Angner and Paola Tubaro have put
together a neat session on this topic at ESHET 2006; Porto in Spring, you should come! For
details see: http://www.dpo.uab.edu/~angner/future.html.
     
  In my paper I will argue (in part) that while physicists may not have read original
papers or know much about the details of their own discipline (other than what's used for
didactic purposes in textbooks, propoganda, etc), the actual (not just stylized/whiggish)
history can (and sometimes really do) matter in very concrete ways in physics (and
economics), especially in evidential arguments. The past does not merely include the
history of error; it is also the history of trials/experiments and the source of data.
  
Best,  
  
Eric Schliesser