The figures · Thinkers

Ernest Renan

Renan gave modern nationalism one of its most famous civic definitions.

BORN 1823 CE · Treguier, FranceDIED 1892 CE · Paris, FranceERA Nineteenth-century political thought

NOTABLE CONTRIBUTION

Defined the nation as shared memory and continuing consent rather than race, language, or geography alone.

THE RECORD

His lecture What Is a Nation? argued that nations depend on memory and present willingness to live together.
He rejected simple racial or linguistic definitions of nationhood.
His formulation remains central in debates over civic nationalism and collective identity.