Due to the demand for flexible working hours and employees who are available around the clock, the time patterns of childcare and schooling have increasingly become a political issue. Comparing the development of different "time policies" of half-day and all-day provisions in a variety of Eastern and Western European countries since the end of World War II, this innovative volume brings together internationally known experts from the fields of comparative education, history, and the social and political sciences, and makes a significant contribution to this new interdisciplinary field of comparative study. Cristina Allemann-Ghionda is Professor of Comparative Education at the University of Cologne. Karen Hagemann is James G. Kenan Distinguished Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Konrad H. Jarausch is Lurcy Professor of European Civilization at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.