Overthrowing communism in 1989 and joining the European Union in 2004, the Polish people hold loyalties to region, country and now continent even as the definition of what it means to be European remains unclear. This book uses the life-story narratives of rural and urban southern Poles to reveal how being European is considered a fundamental component of being Polish while participants are simultaneously becoming European .

Close attention to the individual lives of Poles allows the author to identify cultural patterns and grasp the impact of the EU on its member states, paying...

Overthrowing communism in 1989 and joining the European Union in 2004, the Polish people hold loyalties to region, country and now continent even as the definition of what it means to be European remains unclear. This book uses the life-story narratives of rural and urban southern Poles to reveal how being European is considered a fundamental component of being Polish while participants are simultaneously becoming European .

Close attention to the individual lives of Poles allows the author to identify cultural patterns and grasp the impact of the EU on its member states, paying...