The American introduction of a youth program in postwar Germany was exceptional in German history. Youth experts in the American Military Government introduced public youth work that was unprecedented in both form and degree. The program was only loosely executed by public administrators and excluded only those youth who had held responsible positions in Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls. The American intention to place German youth work in the hands of the youth themselves—a feature of American youth policy that was unique to the German experience—compares favorably with present-day standards. The Americans developed a youth policy and implemented it through a program which, in the long run, achieved notable success.

More than twenty-five years have passed since the publication of Canadian Education: A History, the most comprehensive scholarly overview of educational development in Canada. Much has happened historiographically since the early 1970s, but a new grand synthesis of Canada's educational history has not been part of this intellectual harvest. For more positive reasons than the lack of an alternative, the book has enduring value and is the place one still turns, at least initially, for lucid accounts of key events in the history of Canadian education.

Any analysis of social, cultural, and political issues in any part of the world can be instantly derailed by inserting into the discussion the comment “except in the South.” A discourse, for example, on the striving, otherworldly qualities of French Gothic architecture is brought up short with the qualification “except in the south of France.” Likewise, an analysis of political behavior in Chicago, with its ethnic diversities and rivalries, has to treat the southside of Chicago as exceptional.