Avenues of Transformation

WINNER, 2023 Illinois State Historical Society  Russell P. Strange Book of the Year Award! A territory split by slavery, a state forged for union Avenues of Transformation traces the surprising path, marked by shame, ambition, and will that led to Illinois’s admission to the Union in 1818. Historian James A. Edstrom guides the reader through this story by associating each stage of the narrative—the original statehood campaign, the passage of Illinois’s statehood-enabling act by Congress, an