Description

In an afterword, the political theorist Nathalie Krikorian-Duronsoy distinguishes Renan's idea of the nation from the social contract tradition, particulary in its Rousseauist variant. In Renan's view, the nation is not a mere sum of individuals but an autonomous entity in its own right. Only by grasping this may one move beyond the extremely partial reading to which What Is a Nation? has long been reduced and recognize the various ways in which Renan's thought intersects with contemporary debates regarding immigration, identity, and the future of the nation state.