This volume is a study of the most important organization of Polish political exiles in Western Europe during the revolutions of 1848-1849, with a focus on the group's actions in France. It recounts the group's political and military activities in France, Germany, Hungary and their own partitioned Polish homeland. Founded in 1832, the Polish Democratic Society gradually emerged as the largest political organization engaged in the restoration of an independent Polish state. This study recounts the story of the Polish Democratic Society's fortunes from a time of complete optimism in March of 1848 to the time of defeat and repression in July of 1849 when the organization was banned by the French government and its leaders were expelled from France.