Ernest Renan & Shlomo Sand 
On the Nation and the Jewish People 

Ernest Renan was one of the intellectual giants of the second half of the nineteenth century in France, the man who first opened up the study of nationalism. In this book, Shlomo Sand, the author of the best-selling
The Invention of the Jewish People, demonstrates the complexity of Renan’s thought. Sand shows the relationship of Renan’s work to that of key twentieth-century thinkers on nationalism, such as Raymond Aron and Ernest Gellner, and argues for the continued importance of studying Renan.

Alongside his essay, Sand presents two classic lectures by Renan: the first, the renowned ‘What Is a Nation?’, argues that nations are not based upon race, religion, and language; in the second he uses historical evidence to show that the Jews cannot be considered a ‘pure ethnos.’
On the Nation and the Jewish People is an important contribution to the understanding of nationalism, bringing back into play the work of a profoundly misunderstood thinker.

About the author

Shlomo Sand studied history at the University of Tel Aviv and at the �cole des hautes �tudes en sciences sociales, in Paris. He currently teaches contemporary history at the University of Tel Aviv. His books include The Invention of the Jewish People, On the Nation and the Jewish People, L’Illusion du politique: Georges Sorel et le d�bat intellectuel 1900, Georges Sorel en son temps, Le XXe si�cle � l’�cran and Les Mots et la terre: les intellectuels en Isra�l.