The standard story of St. Louis's founding tells of fur traders Pierre Laclède Liguest and Auguste Chouteau hacking a city out of wilderness. This book overturns such gauzy myths with the contrarian thesis that French government officials and institutions shaped and structured early city society. Of the former, none did more than Louis St. Ange de Bellerive. His commitment to the Bourbon monarchy and to civil tranquility made him the prime mover as St. Louis emerged during the tumult following the French and Indian War. Drawing on new source materials, the book delves into the complexities of ... More

The standard story of St. Louis's founding tells of fur traders Pierre Laclède Liguest and Auguste Chouteau hacking a city out of wilderness. This book overturns such gauzy myths with the contrarian thesis that French government officials and institutions shaped and structured early city society. Of the former, none did more than Louis St. Ange de Bellerive. His commitment to the Bourbon monarchy and to civil tranquility made him the prime mover as St. Louis emerged during the tumult following the French and Indian War. Drawing on new source materials, the book delves into the complexities of politics, Indian affairs, slavery, the role of women, and material culture that defined the city's founding period. The alternative version of the oft-told tale uncovers the imperial realities—as personified by St. Ange—that truly governed in the Illinois Country of the time, and provide a trove of new information on everything from the fur trade to the arrival of the British and Spanish after the Seven Years War.