The Louisiana Purchase: The Grand Bargain and the Making of America()

Richard Archer

A true pivotal moment in American history, the Louisiana Purchase redefined the boundaries of the United States and recharted the course of its history. The story behind it transcends borders

The United States bought the Louisiana Territory from Napoleonic France in 1803, paying--so the story goes--a mere 15 million dollars, or "40 cents an acre." The young nation more than doubled its size, absorbing the greater part of an entire continent in a single real estate transaction. This overlooks a critical feature of the purchase, however: the agreement signed by Thomas Jefferson did not grant the American republic the land; it merely allowed it to assume the authority to negotiate the acquisition of the land, which was still owned by Native Americans. The Louisiana Purchase was a founding event of what ultimately became the U.S.-Indian Treaty System, one that produced over two hundred Native American cessions between 1804 and 1970 and cost the United States billions of dollars.

Alexander Mikaberidze's provocative and engrossing book examines what lay behind what eventually became one of the costliest undertakings in American history--not only in dollars but in lives displaced and cultures erased. To do that, he looks beyond the period's diplomatic wranglings and delves into a broader story of European colonialism to illuminate why Louisiana was passed around--from France to Spain, then back to France--before the U.S. purchase. How did it go from being a burden to a prize?

Understanding the full significance of the Louisiana Purchase means expanding the narrative. The country's destiny was determined by men who had never walked the streets of New Orleans or gazed upon the majestic panoramas of the Rockies but who instead managed the finances of the world's empires. Territorial ambition remains a persistent feature in American politics. This book compels us to appreciate the larger story of the purchase and its place in both national and global history.