§ The map · Illinois
Illinois was admitted to the Union in 1818.
Moved its own northern border sixty miles to reach Lake Michigan.
Asked how many people in the other party support political violence, Illinois residents put the figure at 53.2%. Asked the same people whether they themselves support it, the answer comes back at 18.8%. The distance between what is believed and what is true is 34.4 points, across 5,361 respondents in Illinois.
A gap this wide is not an opinion. It is a measurement, and it is the ground the novels stand on.
Ratification votes and dates from the United States Senate Manual. Statehood dates from the National Archives. Where sources disagree, this map follows the Senate Manual and says so.
America's Political Pulse, Polarization Research Lab. Weekly from September 2022 to March 2026. 162,000 respondents nationally.
Answer the same question yourself — six seats, from the world down to you, and then you see where every other reader landed.
All fifty-one cards on the map
Divided Houses, Book One of the Union Trilogy