This innovative study by Maire Fedelma Cross analyses 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.