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

The Louisiana Purchase is often remembered as a simple bargain—four cents an acre and a nation that doubled in size overnight. But the true story is far more complex, global, and consequential. Historian Alexander Mikaberidze examines how the 1803 purchase from France led to the birth of the U.S.–Indian treaty system, redefined the United States, and reshaped the modern world.