[2] Throughout the book, DeSantis shows contempt for other institutions, including legacy media, the Democratic Party (described as a "woke dumpster fire"), and Big Tech.

[5] On the COVID-19 pandemic in Florida, DeSantis advocates for a relaxed position on businesses and schools, and suggests the United States government should investigate the origin of SARS-CoV-2.

Additionally, he criticizes Fauci for the federal government's response to the pandemic, suggesting that the models used by the White House Coronavirus Task Force were overexaggerated.

[6] By contrast, in Dreams from Our Founding Fathers, he criticizes Barack Obama for executive overreach, accusing Kathleen Sebelius of using her power to "intimidate private businesses for engaging in speech she didn't like".

[6] Although described as a memoir,[7] The Courage to be Free mentions few details of DeSantis's career; for instance, his 2016 United States Senate candidacy bid is omitted.

[8] The book briefly covers DeSantis's enjoyment of baseball and his working-class parents, though it presents his time at Yale University with scorn for the student body's "unbridled leftism".

[17] Several weeks after its release, Florida Democrats attempted to use a bill DeSantis signed in March 2022 to get The Courage to Be Free removed from school curricula.

[19] In a review for The New York Times, Jennifer Szalai criticized the memoir for being filled with bland platitudes and culture war "Mad Libs".

[3] In a review for The Daily Telegraph, Tim Stanley gave the memoir 3 out of 5 stars, stating that it "may support the former President, but DeSantis makes his sophisticated differences from Trump clear".