The Courage to Be Free: What's in Ron DeSantis' 'chilling' new book?

In his new memoir, the rising Republican "tries to make his message palatable for the national stage"

A book.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Gettyimages)

It's fairly safe to assume that when a politician releases a memoir, they're not doing so simply to appease their inner sense of authorial merit. Rather, it's helpful to think of these forays into literature as being in service of a lawmaker's broader political aspirations, for which the visibility and financial benefits of high-profile authorship can be leveraged for future electoral gains. Former President Barack Obama launched his nascent political career after first publishing his memoir Dreams from My Father; Hillary Clinton's Hard Choices, an account of her time as secretary of state, preceded her 2016 presidential campaign; and Crippled America: How to Make America Great Again helped propel Donald Trump to the White House that same year. The list goes on.

Now joining the ranks of political memoirists is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), whose The Courage to Be Free: Florida's Blueprint for America's Revival was released Feb. 28 to financial — if not necessarily critical — acclaim. While DeSantis hasn't officially declared whether he plans to challenge Trump for the 2024 presidential nomination, the very fact that he has chosen this moment to not only publish his overtly political tome but accompany it with a national tour featuring multiple campaign-like stops strongly suggests that he will. And even if he doesn't, the book and national tour will, if nothing else, set up the basic framework of any future run.

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Rafi Schwartz, The Week US

Rafi Schwartz has worked as a politics writer at The Week since 2022, where he covers elections, Congress and the White House. He was previously a contributing writer with Mic focusing largely on politics, a senior writer with Splinter News, a staff writer for Fusion's news lab, and the managing editor of Heeb Magazine, a Jewish life and culture publication. Rafi's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GOOD and The Forward, among others.