[1] This course let him enroll in a doctorate under the direction of Paul Vidal de La Blache on a theme of biological geography in the eastern Pyrenees, a pioneering work he presented in 1913.
[2] His complementary thesis was entitled: "A critical study of the sources of the history of viticulture and the trade of wines and spirits in Lower Languedoc in the eighteenth century".
[1] Sorre had left-wing views, and under the Popular Front he was named director of primary education by Jean Zay.
During World War II (1939–45) The Vichy Regime dismissed him from this position due to his political views, and he was returned to the Lille Faculty of Letters by a decree of 29 July 1940.
[1] At the end of his life Maximilien Sorre was President of the École Normale Supérieure in the rue d'Ulm, Paris.
[7] Sorre was interested in the biological conditions of habitability of regions of the world, and the process of transfer of populations and cultures by international migrations.