The book traces the origins of US hegemony from the planning conducted by the Council on Foreign Relations in the late 1930s to the implementation of strategies for US dominance at the Bretton Woods conference of 1944, where the US dollar was installed as the world's reserve currency. The book demonstrates how the US dollar's reserve currency status underpinned the economic primacy and power of the United States in the post-war period. It highlights the importance of the 1974 deal between the United States and Saudi Arabia to exchange US dollars for Saudi oil. It also examines the debate about the future of the US dollar's status within the global financial system.