Pierce Mullen

Pierce Mullen is an emeritus professor of history at Montana State University in Bozeman. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley, and a master's degree from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. His undergraduate work was done at Hastings College in Nebraska, St. Benedict's College in Kansas, and Baylor University in Texas.

Professor Mullen has written on a wide variety of topics, including military history, and the history of science, medicine, and genetics, and has contributed to the Dictionary of American Medical Biography.

He is currently working on an expanded treatment of the Louisiana Purchase, of which this essay is a part.