To commemorate Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday in 2009, a new documentary immerses viewers in a critical, but often overlooked, time in the stateman's life. LINCOLN: PRELUDE TO THE PRESIDENCY pieces together a critical 23-year period (1837-1860) through interviews with noted historians, researchers and experts, and re-enactments filmed at historic sites in central Illinois. Prominent scholars Doris Kearns Goodwin and Orville Vernon Burton (The Age of Lincoln) describe how Lincoln's formative experiences as a young lawyer on Illinois' Eighth Judicial Circuit informed his views on the issues he would eventually face as president, including several cases involving slavery.
