The article analyzes the commentary of the jurist Paul Esmein (1886-1966) on the Family Code of 1939, focusing on the place he gives to key notions of the 1930s: “protection of the race”, “defense of the race,” “French spirit,” “French genius,” “French community,” and “French soul.” It breaks down the hygienist, eugenicist, and strictly racial meanings of these expressions, linking them to the biopolitical sensibility of the time, which was influenced by pronatalist and pro-family ideologies, and by the opposition between rural and urban dwellers. On this basis, the article concludes by describing how conservative elites were led to subscribe, at least partly, to the establishment of labor law, social insurance and later, at the Liberation, Social Security.