During the last two decades, historians have paid growing attention to Germany's democratic development in the aftermath of World War II. Learning Democracy serves as an important contribution to this scholarly conversation. In this well-researched study, Brian M. Puaca uses the history of education reform to examine how democracy took root in the Federal Republic. Challenging the commonly held assumption that the West German educational system remained stagnant between 1945 and 1965, Puaca finds that German educators slowly introduced a wide range of modifications intended to socialize young people into a new, democratic state. Drawing from German and American archival sources and extensive oral histories, he examines the ways in which pedagogical and curricular practices helped to structure interpersonal relationships, organize society, and shape attitudes in the Federal Republic.

Puaca begins his examination in 1945 when the American Office of Military Government in Germany (OMGUS) first called for German educational innovations. American officials believed that Germany's authoritarian educational model helped to prepare Germans for their participation in two world wars. They cast a wary eye on a system that tracked children toward work or university, teachers who demanded strict obedience, and a school culture that served as a means of social control. Yet, as Puaca shows, the educational innovations introduced by OMGUS met with limited success. The lack of usable classrooms, textbooks, and teachers occupied the attention of American officials. Moreover, German educators resisted American attempts at innovation. Beginning in 1948, more German administrators, educators, and students articulated the need for educational reform and began to introduce their own gradual changes. The German modifications would have a long-lasting influence on the Federal Republic.

Puaca identifies five particularly significant innovations, namely the introduction of new textbooks, the advent of political education and social studies, the creation of student government organizations and newspapers, and the introduction of teacher training and exchange programs. Modern textbooks attempted to dismantle the authoritarian relationship between teachers and students by recasting German history and encouraging debate on a wide range of issues. These new studies excised the radical, militarized nationalism common in their counterparts before 1945. New organizations and activities also destabilized the authoritarian culture of the German classroom and reshaped the relationships between teachers and pupils. Student government organizations offered pupils the opportunity to participate in elections and to legislate. As members of student government organizations, they also collaborated with other student groups, raised money for charitable organizations, and assisted in the administration of their schools. Their newspapers also encouraged democratic behavior. As writers and readers of student newspapers, pupils formed, articulated, shared, and debated ideas. In addition, the creation of training programs helped to prepare a generation of educators that would be unwavering in their support of democracy. Prospective teachers studied new methods to encourage student debate and group work; their curriculum now focused on child psychology, educational theory, and pedagogy. Many teachers also took advantage of exchange programs, which helped thousands of teachers and students experience democracy in the United States. Even before the Fulbright grants first enabled German teachers to cross the Atlantic in 1953, German teachers began to come to the United States to experience local community life. Finally, school administrators and teachers looked to political education as a way to prepare young Germans for their responsibilities as citizens in a democratic society. Political education relied on ongoing school reforms, namely student government and newspapers, new textbooks, classroom debates, and radio programs. Until 1960, attempts at creating a viable curriculum and culture centered around political education were unsuccessful. By the late 1950s, however, school administrators and educators increasingly managed to link political education to Germany's democratic future.

Learning Democracy challenges a standard narrative that envisions the late 1960s as the moment when an assault on the conservativism of the 1950s took place. The book's strengths lie in its meticulous examination of the gradual development of educational innovations and in its ability to capture the voices of students and teachers from that period. For Puaca, these voices demonstrate the shifting understandings of German political life; his study's absence of policy and laws may leave some to question his findings. Furthermore, while his focus on West Berlin and Hesse neatly illuminates the different histories of educational reforms under OMGUS and the Federal Republic, his book's title is slightly misleading. Puaca infrequently looks to areas in West Germany other than Berlin or Hesse. Those quibbles aside, Learning Democracy is an important new addition to the scholarship. It is a rich and welcome contribution to the fields of German history and the history of education.