So Vast so Beautiful a Land

Louisiana and the Purchase

Plot

"So Vast, So Beautiful a Land" is the remarkable story of how the early explorers discovered the Mississippi region and by what steps, through one hundred and twenty-one years, their rulers came to allow the infant United States to buy one of the richest territories on earth for fifteen million dollars. Marshall Sprague explores an epic saga of heroism, corruption, wilderness survival, visionary idealism, royal intrigue, greed, murder, and political chicanery. Probing the political, economic, and social factors that led to the Purchase, he skillfully traces the direct sources of France's eventual disillusionment with its territory. Sprague's incisive commentary and lively prose make this volume a work of meticulous scholarship and eminent readability.