Mirjana Gross’s program of historiographical modernization, in the form of a comprehensive social history aimed at overcoming the limitations of traditional histoire événementielle, was not limited to her native Croatian historiography but also had a direct influence on the modernization aspirations of Yugoslav historiographies during the so-called “late socialism.” Starting from the assessment that, from the early 1960s, Mirjana Gross was a key promoter of the “new history” within the community of Yugoslav historians, the paper tries to analyze her program of historical modernization, the resistance it encountered, as well as its overall achievements in Yugoslavia during that time.