A Wilderness So Immense: The Louisiana Purchase

Dr. Kukla talked about his book A Wilderness So Immense: The Louisiana Purchase and the Destiny of America, published by Knopf. The book tells the story of the land purchase that doubled the size of the young nation, set the stage for its expansion across the continent, and confronted Americans with new challenges of ethnic and religious diversity and of the sectional balance of power that would reverberate through the Civil War. Dr. Kukla focused on the complex historic origins of the Purchase and on the diplomacy that pulled it off. President Jefferson is the central character, but the machinations of his Federalist opponents kept matters complex. Also important are the principal diplomats -- Robert Livingston and James Monroe on the American side; Talleyrand, Francois de Barbe-Marbois and Napoleon on the French -- whose crucial mix of personality, circumstance and skill made the United States a continental nation so early in its existence close