Abraham Lincoln, right, and Stephen Douglas are depicted debating at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., in 1858 inside the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield, Ill. Most everyone ...

It was here, on August 27, 1858, that U.S. senatorial candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas waged a war of words. "Imagine that you're there," says my guide, George Buss, stepping onto ...

McClelland opens with the 1858 Illinois senate race, in which upstart Lincoln sought to oust incumbent Douglas. He sees the politics of Illinois as a microcosm of those of the nation. The famous ...