Teach Me: science and public opinion throughout history

I was looking through books online again. I saw some books on denial of scientific findings and an interesting book called Science and the Media: Delgado's Brave Bulls and the Ethics of Scientific Disclosure. That book is probably unnecessary for me as a freshman college student, and it's too much money, but I thought it sounded interesting.

Do you want to cover some history for me, or recommend a source of information that provides broad coverage.

The title of my thread summarize what I want to know about.

"(pseudo)sciences" was a shortened version of "astronomy and astrology; astronomy and religion; climate change, environmentalism, and religion; eugenics, genetics, and evolution; etc."

In typing, "distortions, controversies, denial, ect," I meant anything concerning public opinion conflicting with scientific findings, the public's responses to scientific findings, scientific findings being misinterpreted or introduced to the public too quickly, etc.