Sign-In
Cart
The Continental System: Canada, the United States and the Structure of Integration
Paperback
General Political ScienceGeneral World History
Please select the version of book you would like to purchase.
ISBN13: 9798197563880
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: May 19 2026
Pages: 788
Weight: 2.96
Height: 1.57 Width: 7.00 Depth: 10.00
Language: English
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: May 19 2026
Pages: 788
Weight: 2.96
Height: 1.57 Width: 7.00 Depth: 10.00
Language: English
Canada and the United States remain separate countries. The boundary remains real. The laws are different. The governments are different. The courts, parliaments, and political cultures are not interchangeable. No serious account of the relationship can begin by pretending that sovereignty has disappeared.
Yet the continent does not operate as if the two countries are simply separate. Defence planning, energy systems, industrial supply chains, ports, grids, airspace, radar, pipelines, minerals, water, procurement, border administration, and northern geography have been organized for decades through patterns of coordination that exceed ordinary neighbourliness.
THE CONTINENTAL SYSTEM examines how this arrangement was built, how it works, and what it costs.
From the Depression's fiscal crisis (1929-1939) through wartime emergency coordination (Ogdensburg Agreement, Hyde Park Declaration, Alaska Highway) to Cold War defence integration (NORAD, radar lines, command structure) and contemporary resource politics (critical minerals, electrification, supply chain security), this book traces the institutional architecture through which the northern half of North America has been integrated without political merger.
Drawing on extensive archival research, policy documents, and legal analysis, J.K Hill argues that continental integration operates through negotiated coordination rather than formal consolidation. The system works through executive agreements, administrative synchronization, fiscal instruments, and infrastructure that creates path dependencies-not through constitutional amendment or political union.
What the book examines:
Part I: Depression & Wartime Foundations (1929-1945)
How fiscal crisis, emergency coordination, and wartime infrastructure established the template for binational cooperation without sovereignty loss.
Part II: NORAD & Defence Integration (1945-1968)
How temporary wartime arrangements became permanent institutions-command integration, radar lines, air defence, and the administrative habit of coordination.
Part III-VII: Infrastructure, Resources & Authority
Energy systems, pipelines, transmission lines, highways, boundary administration, Indigenous jurisdiction, provincial resource control, and the political economy of market access.
Part VIII: Contemporary Challenges (1990-2026)
NAFTA/USMCA, critical minerals, electrification, batteries, supply chain security, China, and the question of whether Canada prices what it provides.
The central question runs through every chapter: At the border, where movement becomes permission. In the provinces, where land becomes output. In Indigenous jurisdiction, where corridors encounter authority that cannot be reduced to consultation. In critical minerals, where geology is not enough unless processing, ownership, and market access can be secured.
Essential for: Scholars of Canadian-American relations, North American integration, federalism, resource politics, Indigenous law, border studies, defence policy, and political economy.
THE CONTINENTAL SYSTEM examines how this arrangement was built, how it works, and what it costs.
From the Depression's fiscal crisis (1929-1939) through wartime emergency coordination (Ogdensburg Agreement, Hyde Park Declaration, Alaska Highway) to Cold War defence integration (NORAD, radar lines, command structure) and contemporary resource politics (critical minerals, electrification, supply chain security), this book traces the institutional architecture through which the northern half of North America has been integrated without political merger.
Drawing on extensive archival research, policy documents, and legal analysis, J.K Hill argues that continental integration operates through negotiated coordination rather than formal consolidation. The system works through executive agreements, administrative synchronization, fiscal instruments, and infrastructure that creates path dependencies-not through constitutional amendment or political union.
What the book examines:
Part I: Depression & Wartime Foundations (1929-1945)
How fiscal crisis, emergency coordination, and wartime infrastructure established the template for binational cooperation without sovereignty loss.
Part II: NORAD & Defence Integration (1945-1968)
How temporary wartime arrangements became permanent institutions-command integration, radar lines, air defence, and the administrative habit of coordination.
Part III-VII: Infrastructure, Resources & Authority
Energy systems, pipelines, transmission lines, highways, boundary administration, Indigenous jurisdiction, provincial resource control, and the political economy of market access.
Part VIII: Contemporary Challenges (1990-2026)
NAFTA/USMCA, critical minerals, electrification, batteries, supply chain security, China, and the question of whether Canada prices what it provides.
The central question runs through every chapter: At the border, where movement becomes permission. In the provinces, where land becomes output. In Indigenous jurisdiction, where corridors encounter authority that cannot be reduced to consultation. In critical minerals, where geology is not enough unless processing, ownership, and market access can be secured.
Essential for: Scholars of Canadian-American relations, North American integration, federalism, resource politics, Indigenous law, border studies, defence policy, and political economy.
Also in
General Political Science
Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea
Hunt-Hendrix, Leah
Taylor, Astra
Hardcover
$14.99
Capitalism and the Camera: Essays on Photography and Extraction
Coleman, Kevin
James, Daniel
Paperback
$28.45
The Craftivist Collective Handbook: Projects, Stories and Methods for Your Gentle Protests
Corbett, Sarah P.
Hardcover
$19.99
Guerrilleros and Neighbours in Arms: Identities & Cultures of Anti-Fascist Resistance in Spain
Marco
Paperback
From $24.99
Battling the Big Lie: How Fox, Facebook, and the Maga Media Are Destroying America
Pfeiffer, Dan
Hardcover
$10.99
Urban Revolutions: Urbanisation and (Neo-)Colonialism in Transatlantic Context
Kipfer, Stefan
Paperback
$43.50
Disciplining the Poor: Neoliberal Paternalism and the Persistent Power of Race
Soss, Joe
Fording, Richard C.
Schram, Sanford F.
Paperback
$50.75
Making America's Public Lands: The Contested History of Conservation on Federal Lands
Sowards, Adam M.
Hardcover
$56.00
Nonstate Warfare: The Military Methods of Guerillas, Warlords, and Militias
Biddle, Stephen
Hardcover
$67.50
By the Light of Burning Dreams: The Triumphs and Tragedies of the Second American Revolution
Talbot, David
Talbot, Margaret
Hardcover
$27.54
Requiem for the American Dream: The 10 Principles of Concentration of Wealth & Power
Chomsky, Noam
Paperback
$12.99
An Enemy Such as This: Larry Casuse and the Fight for Native Liberation in One Family on Two Continents Over Three Centuries
Correia, David
Hardcover
From $12.99
Turning the Tide: U.S. Intervention in Central America and the Struggle for Peace
Chomsky, Noam
Paperback
From $11.99
Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism
Wolin, Sheldon S.
Paperback
$11.99
The Persuaders: At the Front Lines of the Fight for Hearts, Minds, and Democracy
Giridharadas, Anand
Hardcover
$10.99
Grassroots Rising: A Call to Action on Climate, Farming, Food, and a Green New Deal
Cummins, Ronnie
Paperback
From $10.99
Everyday Life and Politics in Nineteenth Century Mexico: Men, Women, and War
Wasserman, Mark
Paperback
$44.93
Accessory to War: The Unspoken Alliance Between Astrophysics and the Military
Lang, Avis
Degrasse Tyson, Neil
Hardcover
$28.50
Broken News: Why the Media Rage Machine Divides America and How to Fight Back
Stirewalt, Chris
Paperback
From $9.99
With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful
Greenwald, Glenn
Hardcover
$35.14
Towards Collective Liberation: Anti-Racist Organizing, Feminist Praxis, and Movement Building Strategy
Crass, Chris
Paperback
$20.90
Doing History from the Bottom Up: On E.P. Thompson, Howard Zinn, and Rebuilding the Labor Movement from Below
Lynd, Staughton
Paperback
$18.95
China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power
Wudunn, Sheryl
Kristof, Nicholas D.
Paperback
From $8.99
The Clash of Globalizations: Neo-Liberalism, the Third Way and Anti-Globalization
Kiely, Ray
Paperback
$30.00
Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump
Swan, Jonathan
Haberman, Maggie
Hardcover
$30.60
The College Scam: How America's Universities Are Bankrupting and Brainwashing Away the Future of America's Youth
Kirk, Charlie
Hardcover
$35.99
Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person's Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds
Fugelsang, John
Hardcover
From $17.99
The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern Reader
Murray, Melissa
Hardcover
$27.00
American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union: An Anthology
Meacham, Jon
Hardcover
$34.20
The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017
Khalidi, Rashid
Paperback
From $11.99
Into the Wood Chipper: A Whistleblower's Account of How the Trump Administration Shredded Usaid
Enrich, Nicholas
Hardcover
From $19.99
The Crooked Places Made Straight: Reflections on the Moral Meaning of America
Warnock, Raphael G.
Hardcover
$27.00
The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon
Schweizer, Peter
Hardcover
$30.88
The Elijah Mandate: A Call to Courageous Faith in a Hostile World
Tsarfati, Amir
Piflaks, Tolik
Paperback
$18.04
The Lost Founder: James Wilson and the Forgotten Fight for a People's Constitution
Wegman, Jesse
Hardcover
$27.00
Last Branch Standing: A Potentially Surprising, Occasionally Witty Journey Inside Today's Supreme Court
Isgur, Sarah
Hardcover
$28.80
Live Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made
Kobes Du Mez, Kristin
Hardcover
$30.39
If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All
Soares, Nate
Yudkowsky, Eliezer
Hardcover
From $19.99
The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program That Shaped Our World
Bevins, Vincent
Paperback
$19.79
There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
Goldstone, Brian
Paperback
$18.00
Country of Lords: Neo-Aristocrats, Social Darwinists, Tech Utopians, and the Long Fight Against Equality in America
Phillips-Fein, Kim
Hardcover
$31.50
Ordinary People, Extraordinary Times: How to Reclaim Your Power, Fight for Freedom, and Reimagine Democracy
Perryman, Skye
Paperback
$16.14
American Scoundrel: Roy Cohn's Dark Journey from Joe McCarthy to Donald Trump
Bird, Kai
Goldmark, Susan
Hardcover
$30.40
There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
Goldstone, Brian
Hardcover
$28.50
Fear and Fury: The Reagan Eighties, the Bernie Goetz Shootings, and the Rebirth of White Rage
Thompson, Heather Ann
Hardcover
From $19.99
The Origins of Totalitarianism: With a New Introduction by Anne Applebaum
Applebaum, Anne
Arendt, Hannah
Paperback
$19.79
Alito: The Justice Who Reshaped the Supreme Court and Restored the Constitution
Hemingway, Mollie
Hardcover
$30.40