How Free Speech Saved Democracy by Christopher M. Finan explains how the First Amendment to the US Constitution has helped to shape the America that we are today. This book starts with the adoption of the First Amendment and moves forward to the 2020 riots after the killing of George Floyd. This book is informative and it is honest. It is direct and it is concise. Supporters and opponents of the Freedom of Speech should read this book.

The first half of this book is quite good, but the second half is awful. You can easily do much better by selecting a book that is good throughout.

Exactly What It Claims To Be. This is a book written by a "Progressive" (not liberal, there is a difference that is crucial in these discussions) that mostly focuses on using the Progressive dog-whistle of their version of "democracy" and showing how fighting Conservatives has "saved" that version of "democracy". In other words, a balanced look at the whole of the Free Speech issue in America... this is not. But it also never really claims to be, so it can't really be faulted for this. It just could have been so much better if it *had* been more balanced and thus more complete. Still, progressives will love this version and even those adamantly opposed to the "Progressive" political agenda will likely find useful knowledge here, potentially even some they were unaware of. Thus, this is recommended.