"What Are the Advantages of the Acquisition?": Inventing Expansion in the Early American Republic.

The author comments on the acquisition and expansion in the early American Republic. He mentions the workings of expansion by turning to the first moment when the U.S. made the Louisiana Purchase. France ceded all its territory in the North American mainland which doubled the size of the U.S. in the 1803 agreement. The author notes that he tries to connect the worlds of policymaking and cultural production in order to reconcile the conflicting interpretations of U.S. expansion.