In this study of the culture of opposition, the strategies of the Polish Communist party for remodelling national culture are examined. This is followed by a history of the rise of Solidarity, the circumstances that led to it, and why it did not happen in other communist-run countries.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)
The authority of Polish communists in 1944-1945 was usurpatory; it was not given to them by the Polish people. Nor was the power they held the result of their own actions; they were installed as the country's rulers by the Soviet army. Yet Polish Communists set out to produce credible claims to authority and legitimacy for their power by reshaping the nation's culture and traditions. Jan Kubik begins his study by demonstrating how the strategy for remodeling the national culture was implemented through extensive use of public ceremonies and displays of symbols by the Gierek regime (1970-1980). He then reconstructs the emergence of the Catholic Church and the organized opposition as viable counter-hegemonic subcultures. Their growing strength opened the way for counter-hegemonic politics, the delegitimization of the regime, the rise of Solidarity, and the collapse of communism. He is not studying politics per se, but rather culture and the subtle and indirect ways power is realized within it, often outside of traditionally defined politics. Kubik's approach, which draws heavily on modern anthropological theory, helps explain why Solidarity happened in Poland and not elsewhere in the Communist bloc.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

In this study of the culture of opposition, the strategies of the Polish Communist party for remodelling national culture are examined. This is followed by a history of the rise of Solidarity, the circumstances that led to it, and why it did not happen in other communist-run countries.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)
The authority of Polish communists in 1944-1945 was usurpatory; it was not given to them by the Polish people. Nor was the power they held the result of their own actions; they were installed as the country's rulers by the Soviet army. Yet Polish Communists set out to produce credible claims to authority and legitimacy for their power by reshaping the nation's culture and traditions. Jan Kubik begins his study by demonstrating how the strategy for remodeling the national culture was implemented through extensive use of public ceremonies and displays of symbols by the Gierek regime (1970-1980). He then reconstructs the emergence of the Catholic Church and the organized opposition as viable counter-hegemonic subcultures. Their growing strength opened the way for counter-hegemonic politics, the delegitimization of the regime, the rise of Solidarity, and the collapse of communism. He is not studying politics per se, but rather culture and the subtle and indirect ways power is realized within it, often outside of traditionally defined politics. Kubik's approach, which draws heavily on modern anthropological theory, helps explain why Solidarity happened in Poland and not elsewhere in the Communist bloc.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

What the contributors to this volume offer is neither a romantic version of the course of Polish history nor a jubilant account of the recovery of national independence and political choice. Rather, they offer a variety of tough-minded analytic perspectives on what comes when "the party's over" - not just the PSPR but the celebration marking its downfall. They focus on Poland's movement toward an internationally competitive market economy, a political democracy in which plural interests compete, and the constitution of a civil society that both tolerates and ameliorates conflict. The multidisciplinary contributors include Jan Mujzel, Keith Crane, Benjamin Slay, Kazimierz Poznanski; Jan Bossak, Wojciech Bienkowski, Wlodzimierz Wesolowski, Edmund Wnuk-Lipinski, Adam Sarapata, Andrzej Sicinski, Piotr Lukasiewicz, Krzysztof Nowak, David S. Mason, Adrzej Rychard, Krzysztof Jasiewicz, Jack Bielasiak, Janusz Reykowski, Stanislaw Gebethner, Miroslawa Marody, Edmund Mokrzycki, and Michael D. Kennedy.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• I. Koncepcje i ludzie
• II. Dzałalność.