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There are two epic struggles in Empire, the fourth of Gore Vidal's fictional meditations on the history of the United States. First, there is the historical conflict between Theodore Roosevelt--the war hero vaulted by circumstances into the Oval Office at a time when America is about to become a global power--and newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst. Then there's the battle between the fictional Caroline Sanford (the great-granddaughter of Aaron Burr) and her half-brother Blaise over their late father's estate. Caroline, cut off from the money until her 27th birthday, is furious that Blaise plans to invest (and probably lose) most of it in Hearst's journalistic empire, and initiates a counterstrike by putting together the money to buy her own newspaper in the nation's capital. As always, the scenes are populated by the powerful men and women who dominated American government and society. John Hay and Henry Adams are particularly prominent here, along with Hearst and Roosevelt. But there are also appearances by even more diverse figures, such as novelist Henry James and populist leader William Jennings Bryan.
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