This book is an account of Polish political life from the end of the Polish-Soviet war to the defeat of Poland by Nazi Germany, set against the social and economic background of the new state. It describes, above all, the failure of the highly democratic constitution adopted in March 1921 and its replacement by the semi-autocratic regime of Marshal Pilsudski, a regime which became steadily more authoritarian, particularly after the death of the Marshal in May 1935. Considerable attention has been devoted to foreign policy and to the place of Poland in European politics at the time. The book should thus prove of interest not only to East European specialists, but to all those interested in the history of the interwar years.