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The Louisiana Purchase (Turning Points, 2) book cover

The Louisiana Purchase (Turning Points, 2)

by Thomas Fleming
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SKU 9781630269999
In 1801, relations between the world's only two republics, the United States and France, were at a low ebb. American merchants had just lost millions of dollars to French privateers in the "Quasi-War" of the late 1970s, and Napoleon was scheming to acquire the Louisiana Territory from Spain and create a "wall of brass" that would halt America's westward expansion. Yet a few years later, Napoleon agreed to sell Louisiana to the United States for $15 million. How did America manage to double its territory and end French colonial ambitions in the New World—without firing a shot?

Taking us behind the scenes in Thomas Jefferson's raw "federal village" of Washington, D.C., and inside the duplicitous world of Napoleonic Paris, Fleming shows how Bonaparte haters in Spain, the French army's disastrous failure in Haiti, some wily American negotiating, and Napoleon's resolve to renew his was the "perfidious Albion" led to the momentous French decision to sell Louisiana—and cede 838,000 square miles of land to the United States. We meet a host of fascinating characters as they attempt to advance their nations' interests through diplomacy, threats, lies, bribery, and treachery.

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Book details

Author
Thomas Fleming
Imprint
Trade Paper Press, an imprint of Turner Publishing Company
Published
Pages
194
Formats
Paperback, Hardcover
Series
Turning Points in History
Subjects
History › United States › Revolutionary Period (1775-1800)
Topics
Thomas Jefferson · Napoleon Bonaparte · early American history · French-American relations · territorial expansion · Founding Fathers
ISBN-13
9781630269999 (Paperback)9781681620091 (Hardcover)

About the author

THOMAS FLEMING was an American historian and historical novelist who wrote more than forty works of fiction and nonfiction, with a particular focus on the American Revolution.

Fleming served as president of the Society of American Historians and the PEN American Center. He received a bachelor’s degree with honors from Fordham University in 1950, and his history of West Point was praised by the New York Times as the best ever written. He wrote frequently for American Heritage and appeared regularly on C-SPAN, PBS, and the History Channel.

Fleming was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, and became a full-time writer in 1960. He lived in New York City with his wife, Alice Fleming.

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Format: Paperback