The Empire of the title is the American one After Hearst has more or less single-handedly, created the Cuban campaign - and made a national hero and future president of Teddy Roosevelt - McKinley, Hay and other men of power annexe the Philippines the aggrandisement of the USA flowers while seeds of England's decline are sown Flourishing alongside politics and power is the love story of Caroline Sanford - fiction and history make easy bedfellows