Acadia, Maine, and New Scotland were similarly conceived as major colonizing attempts by France, England, and Scotland, respectively.

In this comparative study, Professor Reid explores the colonizing styles of the parent countries and describes the interaction of the Europeans with the native peoples and with the physical environment of the northeastern seaboard.
Colonial development is traced from the earliest attempts throught the elaborate schemes of each country in the 1620s, which produced the first serious idsjunction between European concept and American reality. During the crucial, formative years between 1630 and 1650, the three emerged as marginal colonies, still unable to harmonize with their environment.

The author discusses the demise of New Scotland by 1650 and the fragile conditions of Acadia and Maine, which resulted from the pressures of potent external forces. As the century went on, Acadia and Maine were open to the conflicting influences of the European governments, the powerful neighbouring colony of Massachusetts, adn the native peoples of the region. A complex and destructive series of wars was the culmination.

Although nothing major differences, Reid emphasizes the similarities among the colonies, each of which failed to fulfil the expectations of its parent country: he reflects on this failure as an important exception to the seemingly ineluctable progress of European colonization in America.