The Maginot Line Reevaluated with Dr. Kevin Passmore
Was the Maginot Line a colossal failure or an unappreciated work of genius? Dr. Kevin Passmore breaks down its history and its role in France's strange defeat.
Today’s special episode is an interview with Dr. Kevin Passmore. Passmore is currently a Professor of History at Cardiff University, Wales. He has published a number of academic books on the French far-right, including: 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). He is also a specialist in historical theory and methods and served as a joint editor of the Bloomsbury series, ‘Writing History’. The fourth revised edition of its flagship volume, Writing History. Theory and Practice, will be published in 2027.
Today we will be discussing his new book Maginot Line. A New History (Yale University Press, 2025). The Maginot Line was a series of massive fortifications built along France’s eastern and northern borders as a defense against German invasion. Germany’s swift victory in 1940 led many to consider the line a relic of past thinking and an abysmal failure. Today we are reevaluating the Maginot Line, how it came about and what role it played in France’s strange defeat.
Script forthcoming