Dr. Kevin Passmore

I am Professor of History at Cardiff University, Wales. I began my academic career as a specialist on the French right and extreme right, publishing, notably, From Liberalism to Fascism. The Right and Extreme Right in a French Province, 1928-1940 (Cambridge University Press, 1997) and The Right in France from the Third Republic to Vichy (Oxford University Press, 2014). I have also published Fascism. A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2002, 2014), of which the third entirely re-written edition will be published in 2027.
I am also a specialist in historical theory and methods, in which field I jointly edit the Bloomsbury series, ‘Writing History’. The fourth revised edition of its flagship volume, Writing History. Theory and Practice, will be published in 2027.
The Maginot Line. A New History (Yale University Press, 2025), was made possible by a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship, and by further Leverhulme, British Academy and Cardiff University grants.
Both the Maginot Line Book and the my work on Fascism draw on the relational political sociology of Michel Dobry. At present, I am collaborating with Professor Carlos Ramirez (University of the Andes) on an edited book exploring the impact and application of Dobry’s methods. I am also writing a monograph, ‘The French extreme right in the age of Fascism and National Socialism’.