FROM BOB

This week belongs to Thomas Jefferson. We just published a 30-question quiz on his presidency, our deepest dive yet on a single administration, and the more time I spent with it, the more one story kept pulling me back: the purchase that doubled the country, made by a president who was not sure he had the right to make it.

So this Saturday is all Jefferson: the deal of the century, the generation that shaped him, the emperor on the other side of the table, and the office he helped define. Find a porch and a second cup of coffee. Let's get into it.

Bob

THIS WEEK'S TOP STORY

In the spring of 1803, Thomas Jefferson sent James Monroe to Paris with authority to spend up to ten million dollars for the city of New Orleans and a path to the sea. Napoleon's ministers came back with an offer nobody in Washington had imagined: the entire Louisiana Territory, 828,000 square miles stretching from the Mississippi to the Rockies, for fifteen million dollars. That works out to roughly three cents an acre for land that would become all or part of fifteen states.

What stays with me is the argument Jefferson had with himself. He had spent a decade insisting the federal government held only the powers the Constitution spelled out, and nowhere did it say a president could buy an empire. He considered asking for a constitutional amendment, then decided the deal was too good and too fragile to wait. The strict constructionist made the boldest executive move the young republic had seen, and the country he doubled never looked back. This week's quiz covers all of it: the purchase, Lewis and Clark, the Barbary pirates, and the eight years that set the republic's course.

Related quiz: The Presidency of Thomas Jefferson →

THREE MORE STORIES WORTH YOUR TIME

STORY 2

Jefferson never stood alone. He drafted the Declaration at 33 with Franklin and Adams editing over his shoulder, feuded with Hamilton across Washington's cabinet, and spent fifty years in conversation, and sometimes at war, with the most remarkable generation of political talent this country has ever produced. 25 questions on the Founding Fathers, from the household names to the ones history keeps in the footnotes.

Take the quiz →

STORY 3

Why would Napoleon sell half a continent for pocket change? A slave revolt in Haiti had wrecked his plans for an American empire, war with Britain was coming, and he needed cash more than he needed distant land he could not defend. "This accession of territory," he is said to have remarked, "strengthens forever the power of the United States." 15 questions on the man on the other side of history's greatest real estate deal.

Take the quiz →

STORY 4

Jefferson was the first president inaugurated in Washington, and the first to take the office from an opposing party, proof that in America power could change hands without a shot fired. Every occupant since has tested and stretched the job in his own way. 15 questions on the American presidency, from Washington's first uncertain steps to the modern office.

Take the quiz →

WHAT I'M READING THIS WEEK

A quick update on Dungeon Crawler Carl, the wild, funny series I told you about two weeks ago: still hooked, still listening on audio, and still recommending Jeff Hays's narration to anyone who will sit still long enough to hear me out. If you have not started it yet, the first book is the place to begin. Sometimes the best thing for a curious mind is a story that has nothing to do with the homework.

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman →

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YOUR QUIZ THIS WEEK

Thirty questions on Jefferson's two terms, from the tied election of 1800 through the Louisiana Purchase, Lewis and Clark, the Barbary pirates, and the embargo that closed out his second term. It pairs with this week's top story, and it goes a good deal deeper than the daily quizzes. Pour a second cup and take your time with it.