When I was in high school, and the Powers didn't wish to let me graduate a year early, I ended up taking so called "schedule fillers." One was a class called Humanities, and its successor Humanities 2. Now before the super religious folks go insane with the term, yes, its called Humanities, and yes it was a story chronicling the "standing on the shoulders of giants" type idea, or rather, how one small invention can affect succeeding historical events and inventions and build up from there... from champagne bottles and Napoleon's army's food needs to modern sterilization and canning processes, from gun cotton to electric lights and modern plastics and photography.
Amazing stuff. And yes, it was always up for being shot down because not enough students wanted to take it. Probably one of the few classes that presented to my "fellows" of the age what it means to APPLY what you learn. Probably one of the few classes I so thoroughly enjoyed that I read the books pretty damn fast. Its nice having text books you are willing to read cover to cover before the year is really seriously underway.
Just saying. Similar idea, and it presents how seemingly unrelated events, without a mastermind overlord government to dictate them, end up bringing about inspiration or materials to get something else done. (This post is in answer to their announced book "I, Pencil" about free market ideas to kids.)