The Rockefeller philanthropies and the Macy Foundation launched a series of programs during the 1920s and 1930s aimed at the production and dissemination of knowledge on the rearing and education of the young. Thus, millions of dollars in foundation funds were put into projects in child study and parent education, the reorganization of secondary education, child growth and development, culture and personality studies, and the personality development of young children by the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial, the General Education Board, the Macy Foundation during the period 1923 to 1941. Informing these projects was a coherent sociopolitical agenda: in order to promote a stable, pacified social order, the foundation projects attempted to foster the formation of friendly, sane, and sociable personalities, who would avoid conflict and other kinds of anti-social behavior.

Thus, the micropractices of private life, especially child rearing and familial and marital practices, were targeted by a sociopolitical scheme oriented toward the reconstruction and pacification of social life. The book examines in depth the foundation programs and the deliberations of officers and trustees as they designed and implemented these programs. Special attention is payed to the role of Lawrence K. Frank in the creation and direction of the foundation programs.