Harvest of Empire opens by questioning why the English colonies in the Americas achieved great success while Spanish colonies fragmented and eventually dissipated. Traditionally, scholarship has pointed to the Protestant work ethic as the cause of this disparity. The premise of the American dream is that as long as a person works hard, they can achieve anything, no matter where they come from or what status they were born into. Thus, the often-told story of America is one of how various colonists came to this country ready to work hard and build a life for themselves without any barriers. The accomplishments of the United States can be pointed to as evidence of the American dream.

This narrative has obvious elisions—e.g., the role that the genocide of Indigenous Americans and the enslavement of Black Americans played in the US’s success. Gonzalez, however, notes that it also erases the reality of America’s relationship to Latin America. Though certain differences—e.g., in patterns of land ownership—did set the stage for the Spanish and English colonies’ divergent trajectories, much of America’s success stems from its history of annexation and exploitation. Throughout the early years of the United States and up until 1898, many Anglo American settlers acquired their land by stealing, cheating and ultimately going to war to gain Florida, Texas, California, and other lands from Mexico.