“Katherine Lynch's study of the French state's response to a crisis of working-class families illustrates a new sophistication in our understanding of the complex origins of social policy.  She looks at middle-class reformers' formulation of social policy affecting illegitimacy, child abandonment, and child labor and examines the implementation of these policies in three major factory towns—Lille, Mulhouse, and Rouen—in the quarter century before the revolution of 1848.  .  .  .  This is a most valuable book that seeks to understand both the politics of reform and the ways in which reformist policies change in the process of implementation.  It presents a sophisticated exploration of important issues.”—Journal of Economic History