The chapters investigate crucial questions in relation to life under dictatorships as follows:
* What was the impact of censorship on access to news or entertainment?
* How was leisure time conducted?
* What was the impact of the regime on working life?
* What was the scope for dissent and resistance? To what extent were these possible?
* How much did the regime coerce the population and how much did it try to indoctrinate?
* What was the difference for Party leaders, comrades and members in terms of the possibilities and opportunities that opened up, compared to everyone else in society?
* With the shutting down - to a large extent - of civil society and state intrusion into private life, what restrictions were placed on ordinary and day-to-day activities?
* What happened to religious life and to cultural life and the arts?
* How were personal choices in aspects of life such as reproduction, education and even eating affected by these regimes?
* What was the impact of different political ideologies on people's way of life - whether Fascist, Nazi or Communist?
Dictatorship and Daily Life in 20th-Century Europe addresses these issues and more, striking to the heart of European life in the darkest episodes of its recent history.