Preface
1. The Louisiana Purchase: A Global Context, Background
2. Louisiana in Spanish Global Policy, 1763-1802
3. Louisiana in French Global Policy, 1800-1803
4. Louisiana in American Domestic and Global Policy, 1800-1803
Documents
Biography
Robert D. Bush is an Instructor of history at Front Range Community College.
"This well-researched and erudite volume firmly places the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 within an international context. In so doing, it highlights the intricate foreign policy initiatives of the United States, France, and Spain which resulted in this momentous territorial addition to the nation. It constitutes required reading for anyone interested in the subject."
– Light Townsend Cummins, Austin College, President of the Louisiana Historical Association
"In The Louisiana Purchase, Dr. Robert Bush prompts us to reexamine one of America’s most important events. He squarely seats it within a greater global context, while reminding us all the while of the integral role the purchase played in helping shape the future destiny of the nation."
– Bruce Nye, Front Range Community College
"Bob Bush has provided a clear, richly-researched reassessment of the Louisiana Purchase. More important, by telling the story in the context of world affairs, he demonstrates how historians utilize a wide variety of primary documents in analyzing important historical events. Bush's work demonstrates the essential dependencies between historical interpretation and archival research in reassessing a complicated story of war, diplomacy, international affairs and national aspirations. Students of history and archival studies will benefit from this work."
– Philip J. Roberts, University of Wyoming
"The goal of this book is an admirable one. Too often, U.S. history textbooks provide students with only a brief examination of the diplomacy and "discovery" elements of the Louisiana Purchase and the subsequent exploration of the territory [...] Bush and Series editor Dr. William Thomas Allison of Georgia Southern University provide the reader with an examination of the French experience with the territory, the balance of power politics that influence the territory's transfer bewteen powers, and, reflective of the book's strengths, a liverly reading of the debates between American Politicans, the intellectual acrobatics Jefferson, Madison, and others performedi n order to justify or oppose the puchase, and the wiles of several European diplomats."
-Steven J. Bucklin, University of South Dakota, Annals of Wyoming, 2014
