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This article challenges the common assumption that Rousseauan nostalgia is passive and apolitical by reconstructing Rousseau's theory of childhood memory in his pedagogical treatise, Emile. I argue that Rousseau invites his readers to long for social and active connection, rather than passive self-unity. To develop this position, I claim that Rousseau's understanding of memory in Emile draws primarily from Condillac's Essai sur l'origine des connaissances humaines and Traite des sensations. For both philosophers, the child understands and remembers his action within community. In Rousseau's Emile, in particular, memory and nostalgia reveal the child's active and fragile exposure to others.
