It's a matter the sense of history used as an unqualified abstract noun.
Compare with this case where history is used in a fully qualified abstract noun:
During most of the history of Europe...
During most of European history...
As you can see, the first of these follows the pattern you describe in "most of the people", while the second follows that of "most of history" pattern you describe. We can see it with some other words:
She has a love for all of the culture of America.
She has a love for all of American culture.
What's changing here is not a matter of most of vs most of the, but of whether or not an article is used. That is, it's the difference between the history vs history, the culture vs culture, and so on.
This is a matter of qualifying the abstract noun so that it becomes treated like a concrete noun.