History and social studies not only help to suture together "imagined communities" (Anderson, 1983), they also convey understandings about how people effect change through time. This qualitative study investigates the reasoning of 4 secondary history teachers about agency as both a question of the shape of human interactions and content of human motivations expressed through their teaching and in relation to scholarship in sociology and history. Participants account for the content of agency (with varying degrees of emphasis) with appeals to socioeconomic positions and experiences. A tension exists, however, concerning how best to reconcile such experiences with the motivational force of ideals and existential tensions behind people's actions. Relating to the shape of agency, participants raise questions about the relative roles played by, and interaction between, leaders, discourses and ideals, and social movements. This study explores the ways in which these findings reflect broader forms of cultural reasoning about agency and the benefits of bringing teachers and scholarship together around key historical concepts. (Contains 7 notes.)