Product Description: When newly elected Illinois State Representative Abraham Lincoln first saw 5'4" Stephen A. Douglas, he sized him up as "the least man I ever saw." With the introduction of Douglas's first bill in 1834, Lincoln soon thought differently...read more

Product Description: In 1993, Alan J. Dixon’s political career came to an end with a defeat—the first one in his forty-three years of elected service. Beginning his legislative career in 1950 as a Democrat in the Illinois House of Representatives, Dixon also served in the Illinois State Senate, worked as state treasurer and secretary of state, and concluded his political career as a U...read more

Product Description: Captain James Madison Hood was the real U.S. Consul in the novel Anna and the King of Siam, but before his arrival in Bangkok, he was also a merchant ship captain, builder of clipper ships, legislator in both Massachusetts and Illinois, industrialist, and land speculator...read more

Product Description: This thematic biography demonstrates how Stephen Douglas's path from a conflicted youth in Vermont to dim prospects in New York to overnight stardom in Illinois led to his identification with the Democratic Party and his belief that the federal government should respect the diversity of states and territories...read more

Product Description: As the first African American elected to the Illinois general assembly, John W. E. Thomas was the recognized leader of the state’s African American community for nearly twenty years and laid the groundwork for the success of future black leaders in Chicago politics...read more

Product Description: In the climax of Richard Lawrence Miller's epic four-volume biography of Abraham Lincoln's pre-presidential years, a blunder by the proponents of slavery propels Lincoln toward the White House. Initially, passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act seems to be a victory for the South, opening the American West to slavery...read more

Product Description: This sweeping survey constitutes the first comprehensive treatment of the forty-seven individuals—forty-six white males and one African American female—who have been chosen to represent Illinois in the United States Senate from 1818 to 2003...read more