Becoming Lincoln

The rising Lincolns and the Kentucky plummet

The Indiana plunge

The Illinois crash

The New Salem recovery

The rise and fall of a state legislator

The rise and limits of a pre-1850s lawyer

The rise and turbulence of a marriage

A congressional aspirant's rise

The Congressional fall

The Union's economic rescue

Three climactic railroad cases

The Peoria address and the strategy of defense

The 1855 setback

The lost/found speech

The Dred Scott case and the Kansas finale

The great debates

The cunning revisions

The Cooper Union address

The Presidential election and the fruits of revision

The erratic interregnum

The troubled inaugural address

Forts Sumter and Pickens and the emergence of an impressive administrator.