This vivid account of the crucial role played by the French in the Western Hemisphere chronicles the rise and fall of the French empire on the mainland of North America and the West Indies, from the arrival of the Breton, Norman and Basque fishermen on the Grand Banks around 1500 to the sale of Louisiana to the United States in 1803.

Professor Eccles depicts the establishment of Baroque civilization and the attempt of the establishment of industries and commerce from the slave plantations of the south to the fur trade posts of the far northwest, and discusses the colonists of other European powers.