The French obsession with population has roots in the Old Regime, when the nascent French state used its growing power to convince French men and women to marry and procreate large families. Drawing on extensive archival research, Tuttle explores the interactions of men, women, and officials all vying for control of the reproductive process. In Conceiving the Old Regime, Leslie Tuttle clearly demonstrates how issues of population growth, fertility, child mortality, and pronatalism permeated French culture intermittently for over a century since 1666. Meticulously researched and fluidly written, this book is engaging and a pleasure to read. Tuttle goes beyond the work of other historians in contributing innovative and important arguments about state building and in elucidating complex connections between gender and the state. Conceiving the Old Regime makes a significant contribution to family history and state building in early modern France by opening a new window that allows us to see the interplay between individuals, communities, and the state.