ABSTRACT
Most Poles regard 1944 as a watershed, an abrupt break with the nascent capitalist social formation. Within and without Poland, events and processes since the mid-1940s are measured against a yardstick of sorts, characterized as moves toward more or less social conflict, democracy, totalitarianism, or socialist democracy—the terms are dictated by the political and theoretical orientation of the commentator. The theoretical and conceptual tools with which social science attempts to account for and explain the historical processes through and by which human action is coordinated pose certain conceptual problems. One's position in an emerging hierarchy is predicated in part upon location within the historically constituted economic and social structure of the village. The range of strategies is given by the social formation, organized with reference to a determinate set of political, economic, and social conditions. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
