The post-communist condition provides interdisciplinary perspectives on the discourses of the postcommunist transformation in Poland. Part 1, “History and ideology at work” (Chs. 1–4), is devoted to the ideological role of history in both public and private contexts viewed from a macro perspective. Part 2, “Mentors and Mediators” (Chs. 5–8) takes a micro perspective on discourses produced by important institutions in Polish society, such as the leading newspapers, the Catholic Church, the successor of the Communist Party, and the Institute of National Remembrance. Part 3, “Living post-communism” (Chs. 9–12) concludes with stories of everyday life as told by ordinary people affected by systemic change, this time from a social actor perspective.

Several thematic threads run through this book, with a strong focus on a historical analysis of transformation discourses. First, this book explores how discourses of the state, statehood, and their histories are accessed in a variety of contexts, both public and private. Second, it investigates institutional discourse playing important roles in the public sphere and on the political scene in Poland. Third, the book considers the structural changes taking place in Polish postcommunist society, viewing them through the localized, bottom-up discourses of postcommunism, which have been little examined in the literature so far. The book offers a kaleidoscope of interdisciplinary approaches to discourse, each chapter focusing upon aspects of the multifaceted discourses that have developed along with the process of transformation.

The work gives analysts a far wider range of methods for thinking about postcommunist transformation than previous works on the subject. It examines a spectrum of topics—Polish history, changes in political bodies and media, the policies of the Catholic Church and the Institute of National Remembrances, xenophobia and anti-Semitism with the emergence of unemployment and homelessness, and experiences of new gender relations and migration. In effect, this book shows how postcommunist transformation can be understood through analyses of changing public and private discourses. It shows Polish postcommunism as a fragile and uneasy transformation, with people and institutions struggling to make sense of it and of life within it. It is this all-encompassing, yet detailed, panorama that marks this book as much bolder than we have seen in this field for some time. It is one that should raise wide-ranging questions for scholars concerned with the nature of discourse and its relationship to politics and everyday life in the still evolving world of Eastern Europe.