The book answers fundamental questions about the processes of social negotiation of mentality shifts in
communist Poland.
Taking
divorce, single motherhood, domestic violence
and
abortion
as examples, it analyzes the level of acceptance toward
tabus
grounded in tradition, and the course of negotiating new meanings and using social exclusion when dealing with new phenomena. The author uses not only national documents, but also ego-documents and cultural texts to prove the macrosocietal dictatorship in the years
1956-1989
contributed not to the revolutionization of society at the family level, but to its perpetuation. The family references made by the communist authorities, especially in the last two decades of their regime, can be treated as one of the factors legitimizing the system.