Jefferson's Great Gamble: The Remarkable Story of Jefferson, Napoleon and the Men behind the Louisiana Purchase

by Charles Cerami

Overview

A New York Times Bestseller! The fascinating story of how four great men fought for the Louisiana Purchase, changing the future of our nation.

Jefferson's Great Gamble tells the incredible story of how four leaders of an upstart nation—Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and Livingston—risked the future of their country and their own careers; outwitted Napoleon Bonaparte, the world's most powerful ruler; and secured a new future for the United States of America.

For two years before the Louisiana Purchase, the nine principal players in the deal watched France and the United States approach the brink of war over the most coveted spot on the planet: a bustling port known as New Orleans. And until the breakthrough moment when a deal was secured, the men who steered their countries through the tense and often beguiling negotiations knew only that the futures of both nations were at stake.

Jefferson's Great Gamble is an extraordinary work that redefines one of the most important and overlooked events in American history. To read Jefferson's Great Gamble is to experience the tense days and nights leading to a decision that changed the face of the world. From the early American infighting to the heated French negotiations to the battle needed years later to secure the purchase, this new history is a story of dedicated men, each driven by love of country, who created an event that Robert Livingston called "the noblest work of our lives."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781402234354
Publisher:	Sourcebooks
Publication date:	03/01/2004
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	328
Sales rank:	877,434
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Charles A. Cerami is the author of eleven books, including Benjamin Banneker: Surveyor, Astronomer, Publisher, Patriot and A Marshall Plan for the 1990s. Cerami's articles have been published in The Atlantic Monthly, Playboy, New York Times, Foreign Policy, The Spectator (of London) and Swiss Review of World Affairs.

Charles Cerami is the author of the New York Times extended bestseller, Jefferson's Great Gamble (Sourcebooks, 2003), which tells the story of Jefferson, Napoleon and the Louisiana Purchase. He is also the author of Benjamin Banneker: Surveyor, Astronomer, Publisher, Patriot, among others. Cerami lives in Washington, D.C.

Table of Contents

Contents

Preface

1. Toward the Great River

2. Friendly France Threatens America

3. The Fateful Island

4. One Spot on the Globe

5. The Mistrusted Envoy

6. Napoleon's Odd Couple

7. Confusing Bonaparte

8. The du Pont Way

9. An Extraordinary Minister

10. Waiting for Monroe

11. Agonizing Moments

12. The Tremulous Pause

13. Monroe's Historic Decision

14. The Moment in History

15. The Senate's Pretended Reluctance

16. The Antagonists Move On

17. A Territory on the Move

18. The Long Sequel

Notes

Bibliography

Index

About the Author