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The Louisiana Purchase: The Grand Bargain and the Making of America
Author(s): Alexander Mikaberidze (Author)
- Publisher: Oxford University Press
- Publication Date: July 3, 2026
- Language: English
- Print length: 624 pages
- ISBN-10: 0197548148
- ISBN-13: 9780197548141
Book Description
The United States bought the Louisiana Territory from Napoleonic France in 1803, paying--so the story goes--a mere 15 million dollars, or "four 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.
Editorial Reviews
Review
--Alan Taylor, author of ^iAmerican Republics: A Continental History, 1783-1850^r
"No-one could write more authoritatively and brilliantly on the Louisiana Purchase than Alexander Mikaberidze, steeped as he is in all the international primary sources. He conveys superbly how the westward manifest destiny of the United States was in fact anything but manifest, and how important contingency was on what was to become the continental greatness of America."
--Andrew Roberts, author of Napoleon: A Life
"In this engaging, revealing, and deeply researched book, Alexander Mikaberidze gives the long history of the Louisiana Purchase the sweeping global perspective it has always needed and deserved."
--Peter Kastor, Washington University, author of The Nation's Crucible: The Louisiana Purchase and Creation of America
"With a range and amplitude that reflects the age of epic historians, and a precision and scholarship that captures the insights and issues of the present, Alexander Mikaberidze does it again. A very fine work on a seminal moment in the history of both the U.S. and the Americas."
--Jeremy Black, author of The Struggle for Mastery in North America
"An exploration of an outstanding event in global history that both demonstrates masterful scholarship and recaptures the hallowed tradition of grand storytelling. Uncovering details long forgotten and obscured, Mikaberidze illuminates the Purchase's impact across national, imperial, and cultural boundaries. A rare achievement."
--Edward G. Lengel, author of General George Washington: A Military Life
About the Author
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