This article demonstrates the ways in which cultural analysis can contribute to the historiography of twentieth-century Colombia, particularly the 1930s and 1940s and the period of the República Liberal. With this goal in mind, and from a Latin American perspective, it reclaims for cultural history the work of authors we consider precursors and examines texts that have shaped the field. First, we outline the partisan historiography that first examined the República Liberal as an object of historical analysis after 1948, and the later introduction of disciplinary analyses that, from a structuralist perspective, proposed the first critical approaches to the period. We then discuss works that opened up new paths and that, more or less explicitly, introduced the analytical tools and methodologies of cultural analysis, thus expanding the repertoire of historical actors and actions that made up the warp and woof of life during this period. Finally, we map out recent works on the first half of the twentieth century in other Latin American countries that can suggest ways to delve further into the human experience during these two decades, a topic that remains barely studied.