My favorite part of this book was watching the author incorrectly predict the future not once, but twice.

To Make Men Free is essentially a summary of the history of the Republican Party, starting with Lincoln and ending with several chapters about Movement Conservatism. Heather Cox Richardson takes a critical approach to her exploration of the party's history, so readers who go into it expecting praise are sure to be disappointed.

I found the pacing to be quite slow at times, but that's to be expected in a 450-page book about a historical topic that I do not enjoy. And, because apparently I need to keep saying it, books like this aren't really easy to read for anyone who doesn't have a lot of knowledge about the topic ahead of time. Parts of history that don't fit the author's message tend to be skipped over, leaving gaps in the progression at times. I took APUSH in high school, but it's been five years or so, and I no longer have the presidential timeline memorized, so there were parts of this book where I felt a bit lost.

It's boring, yes, but I didn't think it was that bad of a summary. Of the books I read for my history classes this semester, I enjoyed it the least, but I think it contained a lot of helpful information that helped to contextualize the two other books I read (How Fascism Works and How Democracies Die).

If you're interested in the Republican Party and its progression from an anti-oligarchic party to a party that contains many right-wing extremists today, this book is probably something you should look into.