The development of plans to protect the United States and the rest of the Western Hemisphere that concentrates on policy in the three years before Pearl Harbor, the gradual merger of hemisphere defense into a broader national defense policy, the transition to offensive plans after Pearl Harbor, and the military relationships of the United States with other American nations.

Creighton examines the trading system that developed along the St. Lawrence River and argues that the exploitation of key staple products by colonial merchants along the St. Lawrence River system was key to Canada's economic and national development.