This book challenges the one-sided account of Poland as a successful transition case, by exploring the huge social costs for workers in terms of impoverishment and employment precarity. The ambivalent role of the European Union in the economic restructuring of Poland emerges through comparisons to earlier rounds of restructuring of steel in Western Europe, Eastern Europe and other parts of the world. By offering an exemplary case of multi-level analysis, an in-depth case study and biographical research, Fallen Heroes in Global Capitalism provides a compelling read on postsocialism and the restructuring of the Polish steel industry.

Through the prism of 'Nowa Huta', a landmark of socialist industrialization, Trappmann challenges the one-sided account of Poland as a successful transition case and reveals the ambivalent role of the European Union in economic restructuring. An exemplary, suggestive case of multi-level analysis research.