There's a popular conception about the purchase of Alaska, which occurred 150 years ago this year. Russia had a toehold on its American colony but the company in charge of the possession wasn't turning a profit. So it was offered for sale to then-Secretary of State William Seward at a bargain price. Seward bought it and hilarity ensued. Americans mocked the purchase as little more than a frozen wasteland and derided Seward. Little more came of it until the Gold Rush three decades later.
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The truth, as always, is considerably more complex. This is what we learn from "Seward's Folly," a recent book by Lee Farrow, a professor of history at Auburn University in Alabama. Farrow places the purchase in its full context relative to both international geopolitics and the domestic situation in the United States in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War. It makes for an enlightening read.
Farrow's previous research and writing have focused on Russian-American relations in the 19th century, making her an ideal candidate to explore this story. The early pages of the book are an examination of the bond that developed between the two rising powers over the decades leading up to the Civil War.
