Michelle Mouton. From Nurturing the Nation to Purifying the Volk: Weimar and Nazi Family Policy, 1918–1945. (Publications of the German Historical Institute.) Washington, D.C.: German Historical Institute, with Cambridge University Press, New York. 2007. Pp. xvi, 310. $70.00.

Schemes to reverse the declining birthrate while upholding the quality of the future generation were pursued energetically both in Weimar and Nazi Germany; they have in recent years attracted considerable interest from historians both in Germany and in the English-speaking world. The special value of this study is that it offers a thorough comparison between Weimar and Nazi social policy, considers both national policies and local implementation, and supplements archival research and a sound knowledge of secondary literature with oral history.

Michelle Mouton disapproves of suggestions by a number of historians, myself included, that certain Weimar population policies paved the way for Nazism, notably the pursuit of negative eugenics. As her title indicates, Mouton prefers to represent Nazi policy as a radical departure from anything that preceded it. Certainly Weimar policy was timid in design and application compared to...