In Defence of Canada: Appeasement and Rearmament is a companion and sequel to Eayrs' In Defence of Canada: From the Great War to the Great Depression (Toronto 1964). Like Volume I, Volume II rejects as outmoded and misleading the traditional division of national security policy into two compartments, one called foreign policy, the other, defence policy. Like Volume I, Volume II is meant to demonstrate that the military and diplomatic components of national security policy are, and ought to be, indissolubly combined, in study and analysis, as well as in formulation and execution. The emphasis in Volume II is mainly on the diplomatic: the tempo and importance of Canadian diplomacy steadily increase during the period with which it is concerned. That period opens with the Italian war aggression against Ethiopia in 1935. It closes in the late summer and early fall of 1940, as the twilight war becomes a total war.

"This book represents engaged scholarship at its very best. Cohen presents the vast range of texts at his command with brevity and wit. Elegantly written, this is a very stimulating book that is sure to provoke admiration, discussion, and controversy."—David Biale, author of Cultures of the Jews "A distinguished and wide-ranging work of scholarship. Cohen’s definitive discussion of the covenant of circumcision enhances our understanding of Jewish identity formation, women’s status in Judaism, Jewish-Christian polemic, and the impact of diverse cultural environments on the evolution of Jewish tradition."—Judith R. Baskin, author of Midrashic Women