§ The map · Iowa
Iowa was admitted to the Union in 1846.
Congress drew the boundaries and Iowans voted them down twice before accepting them. Statehood came twenty-one months after the act meant to grant it.
Asked how many people in the other party support political violence, Iowa residents put the figure at 55.3%. Asked the same people whether they themselves support it, the answer comes back at 13.9%. The distance between what is believed and what is true is 41.4 points, across 1,271 respondents in Iowa.
A country that misreads itself by this much does not need a villain to come apart. That is the premise of the trilogy, and it is not a metaphor.
State Historical Society of Iowa
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