In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson charged James Monroe and Robert Livingston with the task of negotiating with the French to keep an American port open at the mouth of the Mississippi River. On the two-hundredth anniversary of the signing of the Louisiana Purchase, a re-examination of one of the biggest land deals in American history is timely and revealing. This volume written by James E. Lewis Jr. offers a thoughtful understanding of a complex moment in American history. 112 pages, 16 illustrations, soft cover.