Mitrović wrote extensively on the First World War, the Paris Peace Conference, interwar Europe as well as on economic, social, cultural history and historiography.
[4] Mitrović published the first comprehensive theory of historical studies in Serbian historiography after assimilating the concept of total history developed by the Bielefeld School; Mitrović’s version included politics, economy, society and culture bringing new perspectives in historical writing, a concept which his students then started applying in their own research.
[6] Starting in the late 1980s Mitrović was outspoken about the abuse of history and the revision of facts for political purposes, using his scholarship as a platform for critique and activism.
In the 1990s he was a vocal critic of the regime of Slobodan Milošević, opposing growing nationalism and advocating for a modern European-oriented Serbia.
[a] Together with his wife, Ljubinka Trgovčević, he utilised his academic background to engage in public discourse, writing essays, giving lectures, and participating in every protest against the war.