Ernest Renan

Ernest Renan (1823-92) was a French writer, philologist, philosopher, and historian. Widely considered to be one of the most distinguished scholars of his era, Renan is today principally remembered for two works: his Life of Jesus (Vie de Jésus, 1863), which was immensely controversial in its time for its depiction of the historical Jesus, and What Is a Nation? (Qu'est-ce qu'une nation?, 1882), a lecture on the idea of nationhood delivered at the Sorbonne in 1882 in which Renan responds to the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine following France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71).