The aim of communication is to discuss the identity constructions constituted by the Brazilian State with the curricular reconstruction of the teaching of history in 1951. The references are the teaching program and textbooks written by João Baptista de Mello e Souza (1952, 1956, 1958 and 1959), a full professor who taught at Pedro II School and acted as an agent of this reform. This period was marked by the mobilization of the United Nations, promoting conferences and displaying textbooks, stimulating reflections that aided the construction of an essentially universalist and humanist history, combating the patriotic and sectarian teaching of history. When Getúlio Vargas became president in 1951, he nominated Simões Filho as Minister of Education, and he in turn immediately initiated the curricular restructuring process. This task was given to Pedro II School. It is well known that during the Vargas years (1930-1945) Pedro II School was stripped of this prerogative, which it had enjoyed since it was founded in 1837. In the reform of 1951, we highlight the implementation of the History of America as a second-year course, and the History of Brazil in the first year, when the History of Europe had traditionally been studied. Thus, we selected question for a dialogue with the corpus of documents: Why was J. B. de Mello e Souza chosen to prepare the curricular proposed in 1951? Which conceptions of history formed the basis for his interpretations? How did these conceptions engage with the historical and social dynamic of the time? We will address the object through the social construction of the curriculum (GOODSON, 1995), scanning the “traits of meaning” to value the identity, seeking to understand the ideas and social function of J. B. de Mello e Souza as an intellectual reformer.