Narratives of Empire

The Narratives of Empire series is a heptalogy of historical novels by Gore Vidal. Published between 1967 and 2000, they chronicle the history of Vidal's "American Empire", from dawn to decay, by interweaving the private stories of two fictional American families with the public stories of historical personages. Although the seven novels were not published in order of historical chronology, they can be read in either historical or publication order without sacrificing narrative intelligibility. Vidal insisted on the title “Narratives of Empire” for the series, despite his publishers’ preference for the safer, mainstream “American Chronicles”.^[1]

Order	Title	Story Timeline	Description	Historical Characters	Fictional Characters	Published
1	Burr	1775–1805, 1833–1836, 1840	Aaron Burr’s narrative about the “Founding Father” actors chronicles the nation's beginnings	Aaron Burr, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson	Charlie Schuyler	1973
2	Lincoln	1861–1865	Abraham Lincoln’s presidency and the disloyalties — internal and external — he overcame to save the Union	John Hay, John George Nicolay, Abraham Lincoln, William Seward, Salmon P. Chase, David Herold	William Sanford	1984
3	1876	1875–1877	The 1876 presidential election and its aftermath, where candidate Samuel J. Tilden lost to Rutherford B. Hayes despite winning the popular vote	Samuel J. Tilden	Charlie Schuyler, Emma Schuyler, John Day Apgar, William Sanford	1976
4	Empire	1898–1907	Chronicles the birth of the American Empire at the turn of the 20th Century	John Hay, Del Hay, William Randolph Hearst, William McKinley, Teddy Roosevelt	Caroline Sanford, Blaise Sanford, James Burden Day	1987
5	Hollywood	1917–1923	Chronicles the cinema-shaped self- and world-views of the US populace during the birth of the US film industry	Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding	Caroline Sanford, Blaise Sanford, James Burden Day	1990
6	Washington D.C.	1937–1952	Political life in the term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt		Blaise Sanford, Peter Sanford, James Burden Day, Clay Overbury	1967
7	The Golden Age	1939–1954, 2000	The American Empire’s World War II maturity and Cold War decline; the finale introduces the U.S. at the start of the 21st century	Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Hopkins, Harry S. Truman, Gore Vidal	Caroline Sanford, Blaise Sanford, Peter Sanford, James Burden Day, Clay Overbury	2000

References

1. ^ Vidal, Gore. (2006) Point to Point Navigation: a memoir, 1964 to 2000, p. 123.