Book excerpt: This innovative study analyzes Flora Tristan's correspondence with militant republicans, socialists and democrats active in the July Monarchy. It examines the role of the letter in fostering links at a time of a significant growth of literacy and search for citizenship by the disenfranchised. Combining a gendered analysis of socialist movements with a textual analysis of letters it illustrates the vitality of political tensions in Tristan's communications and the sophistication of political networks on the eve of the 1848 revolution.