This text will acquaint readers with how Blaine sought to win global economic supremacy and intended to transform the U.S. into the world's number one power. The book also lends insight into Blaine's efforts to spark energetic governmental action in revitalizing the merchant marine, building a first-class navy, using the coercive tactic of reciprocity, achieving unilateral control of an isthmian canal, and creating U.S. political and economic hegemony in the hemisphere. In addition, James G. Blaine: Architect of Empire takes a serious look at Blaine the Anglophobe and anti-British nationalist who defined Great Britain as the U.S.'s primary global rival and the chief obstacle to American economic and political dominance in Latin America and the Pacific.
Finally, Crapol looks at Blaine as the transitional figure who helped forge the economic expansionist mentality that underpinned the late nineteenth-century burst of imperialism. James G. Blaine is an excellent resource for scholars and students interested in America's imperial past and the figures who played key roles in America's global economic development.