From identity politics to cultural studies, numerous concerns of the contemporary scene are debated around the construction of collective and individual identities. The processes of cultural hybridization and the proliferation of forms of identity intersect with revived nationalisms and dynamics of identity affirmation, in a complex scenario where ancient and modern identities seem to articulate and coexist, between futuristic sensibilities and the constantly renewed concern for the past. For a certain time, the theory of history seemed to be limited to a work of epistemological clarification without the capacity to pose concrete problems. But today it is necessary to return to global processes, long-term dynamics and complex interactions at the level of the whole world. The philosophy of universal history seems to take on material reality with globalization and the world market. The theory of history, in this framework, needs to ask itself about the ways in which collective narratives and forms of memory interact in the construction of identities.