Can you recommend books giving the history of house plants. Who first
put a plant in a pot and brought it into the home? What plants were
they? When was it? etc.

The only book on houseplant history I could identify for you is one
mentioned on many gardening sites and the only one that comes up in
searches of the Internet and at various book vendors.

Once upon a Windowsill : A History of Indoor Plants by Tovah Martin /
Sagapress / June 1989  List price $29.95
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0881921203/southernperenniaA/002-4379898-4384020
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/offering/list/-/0881921203/all/ref=dp_pb_a/002-4379898-4384020

I also found
A History of the Orchid
by Merle A. Reinikka
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN%3D0881923257/thegreenwebA/002-4379898-4384020


Online, there is good synopsis of houseplant history at 
http://www.plants-for-people.org/#
Follow link at bottom of page to history of houseplants

A few paragraphs exerpted from a discussion on houseplants
http://www.sheilapantry.com/oshworld/focus/1998/199812.html

History and Origins of Indoor Plants
(a course outline)
http://courses.smsu.edu/cma545f/Indoor%20Plants/History%20and%20Origins%20of%20Indoor%20Plants.rtf.

History of the African violet
http://members.fortunecity.com/jeremysviolets/avfanatic/history.html

Search strategies: houseplant history; "indoor plants" history;
houseplant book;
searches at Amazon, Alibris and Powells