Narratives of Empire

The Narratives of Empire series is a heptalogy of historical novels, by Gore Vidal, published between 1967 and 2000, which chronicle the dawn-to-decadence history of the American Empire; the narratives interweave the personal stories of two families with the personages and events of U.S. history. Despite the publisher's preference for the politically neutral series-title “American Chronicles”, the author Vidal preferred the series-title “Narratives of Empire”. The seven narratives of empire can be read in either historical or publication order without losing narrative intelligibility.^[1]

Order	Title	Story timeline	Description	Historical characters	Fictional characters	Published	In order of publication
1	Burr	1775–1808, 1833–1836, 1840	Aaron Burr's story about the Founding Fathers chronicles the beginnings of the U.S. as a country and as a nation	Aaron Burr, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Dolley Madison, Davy Crockett, Martin Van Buren, Andrew Jackson, William Leggett, Helen Jewett, William Cullen Bryant, Samuel Swartwout, Edwin Forrest, Washington Irving	Charlie Schuyler, Carolina de Traxler, William de la Touche Clancey	1973	2nd
2	Lincoln	1861–1865, 1867	Abraham Lincoln's presidency and the disloyalties — internal and external — he overcame to save the Union	Abraham Lincoln, John Hay, John Nicolay, Elihu Washburne, Mary Todd Lincoln, William Seward, Salmon P. Chase, David Herold, Mary Surratt, John Wilkes Booth, Kate Chase, William Sprague	William Sanford, Charlie Schuyler, Emma Schuyler d'Agrigente, William de la Touche Clancey	1984	4th
3	1876	1875–1877	The theft of the United States presidential election, 1876 and its aftermath, when candidate Samuel J. Tilden lost the Electoral College vote to Rutherford B. Hayes, despite Tilden's having won the popular vote	Samuel J. Tilden, James G. Blaine, Roscoe Conkling, James A. Garfield, Mark Twain, James Gordon Bennett, Jr., Madame Restell, Ward McAllister	Charlie Schuyler, Emma Schuyler d'Agrigente, John Day Apgar, William Sanford, Denise Delacroix Sanford, William de la Touche Clancey	1976	3rd
4	Empire	1898–1907	The birth of the American Empire at the turn of the 20th Century	John Hay, William Randolph Hearst, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, George Dewey, William Jennings Bryan, Elihu Root, Henry Adams, Henry James	Caroline Sanford, Blaise Sanford, James Burden Day, John Apgar Sanford, Mrs. Delacroix	1987	5th
5	Hollywood	1917–1923	How the movies shaped the national identity and worldview of the people of the U.S., by the new film business, at Hollywood, California	Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Jess Smith, George Creel	Caroline Sanford, Blaise Sanford, James Burden Day	1990	6th
6	Washington, D.C.	1937–1952	Political life during the administrations of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman		Blaise Sanford, Peter Sanford, James Burden Day, Clay Overbury	1967	1st
7	The Golden Age	1939–1954, 2000	The American Empire matures in the Second World War and its decay and decline in the Cold War; the finale presents the U.S. at the turn of the twenty first century	Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Hopkins, Harry S. Truman, Gore Vidal	Caroline Sanford, Blaise Sanford, Peter Sanford, James Burden Day, Clay Overbury	2000	7th

References

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