Jules Michelet (21 August 1798 – 9 February 1874) is a French historian.

He was born in Paris to a family with Huguenot traditions.

In his 1855 work, Histoire de France (History of France), Jules Michelet is the first historian to use and define the word Renaissance (meaning "Re-birth" in French language), as a period in Europe's cultural history that represented a break from the Middle Ages, creating a modern understanding of humanity and its place in the world.