Abstract
Questions the mobilization of history to construct an identity that is used for political legitimation. The article recognizes that history should have a legitimating function and it analyzes what historical knowledge does in contemporary society by bringing out ambivalences inherent in the concepts of both identity and history. Historical knowledge is illusory because, as the product of technical expertise, it occludes basic, existential realities. History can be seen as the symbolic reflection, if not the ideological mask, of alienating social conditions and morbid cultural values. Therefore, the article proposes that human sociability should be fostered not by deceptive historical identities but by existential priorities.