This article reports findings from an investigation into how novice teachers' classroom discursive practices were influenced by history-in-person processes. Thought-based and practice-based data sources of two novice teachers were analysed to understand how history is brought to the present through the minds and bodies of individuals as they are addressed by external forces. Findings suggested that one's history-in-person interacts in complex and unpredictable ways with external factors and can result in contentious local practice. Thus, attention to both personal history and to institutional constraints must figure into interpretations of how novice teachers perform and how changing practice is approached.