As Michel Foucault has taught us, the regulation of sex is always about more than the regulation of sex. And having more sex does not necessarily get one out of its regulation. This book makes frequent reference to Foucault's History of Sexuality, but this case is a distinctly German history told with incredible detail and from an important range of sources. Herzog argues that the ‘68-era sexual revolution was not necessarily distancing itself from fascism by discovering and demanding sexual pleasure, since German fascism itself continued the liberalization of sexuality begun in the Weimar era. The difference of the Nazi era was the strict racial prohibitions and the particular emphasis on anti-Semitism—what appeared as sexual conservatism was directed explicitly against Jews, who were blamed for brothels and pimping. According to Herzog, however, within youth organizations the Nazis encouraged premarital sex and children out of wedlock, especially during the war. On the other hand, as is well known, homosexuality was severely punished. While Herzog emphasizes the permissiveness within heterosexual “Aryan” relationships, she points out that the major legal prohibitions against homosexuality were not ended in West Germany until the late 1970s. In East Germany, these were put to rest in the 1950s.

Beyond what has already been noted, Herzog's main point is that the “sexual revolution” in Germany was not a reaction to the authoritarian anti-pleasure campaigns of Nazism, but rather “a reaction to the reaction” of post-war, 1950s-era sexual conservatism. The German churches and the political establishment, particularly the Christian Democratic Party (CDU) in West Germany, had tried to distance themselves from the Nazi era by arguing the Nazis had been too permissive. They legally enforced laws against activities such as pimping, which included parents who allowed a daughter's boyfriend to stay overnight with her at their house.

In the end, Herzog asks whether the ‘68 generation had, in fact, succeeded in combining sex and politics or whether it had just made capitalism more pleasurable. Her brief section on sex in the GDR is enlightening, and it also raises further questions about the true impact of actually existing socialism on everyday pleasure.

Finally, the reader wonders about the international dimensions of Herzog's analysis. Beyond occupying troops in the various allied zones within East and West Germany, how did international desires and representations play in the aftermath of the 1950s? What new transnational spaces did the ‘68 sexual revolution open up? What were the limits of these transnational liaisons? Furthermore, while Herzog demonstrates some continuity between sexual liberalization in the Weimar-era, the Nazi-era, and amongst the ‘68 generation, what were the particular post-fascist social effects that resulted from the particular resistance to the Nazis' racialized prohibitions?