Clean OS X install, keeping Time Machine history?
Well, I tried it, and indeed the Time Machine history is preserved (at least with OS X Yosemite). I did the following:


Erased the hard drive
Installed Yosemite
Restored from my Time Machine backup drive


After all this was done, and with the backup drive connected, I entered Time Machine on my Documents folder, and there was the history.

Good work, Apple!

Edit: I finally had to buy a new MacBook Pro, and used Setup Assistant again to transfer all my files from my old MacBook's Time Machine archive. It worked well, and when I was done I booted from my new MacBook everything was there.

Interestingly, when I re-enabled Time Machine on my new MacBook, still attached to my old MacBook's Time Machine disk, I got the following dialog (actually with different disk names):



Sure enough, after I chose "Inherit Backup History" my new Mac was using the old Time Machine backup disk, history in all. Way, way cool.