Lincoln is the central axis of this story about America's seemingly unstoppable march toward war, the shattering of its political landscape, and its grappling with the moral underpinnings of a republic of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Here are such key events as the Mexican-American War, the Dred Scott Case, westward expansion, the rise of the industrial north, the Lincoln-Douglas debates, and the birth of the Republican Party.