This paper conceives history in the New Zealand curriculum as a curriculum problem. In exposing this problem, history’s identity is thrown into question. I outline a motif of disturbance in light of my professional experiences of history curriculum and assessment policy shifts (1990s to 2010). From a critical pedagogy stance, I conceive the national curriculum’s events-based orientation to history as traditional and played out in pedagogy as exclusive cultural reproduction. From a critical pedagogy stance, I consider a counter approach to history curriculum that engages teacher agency and frees up possibilities for students’ historical thinking.