Free to Believe (Or Not) is about what may be America’s greatest political innovation: freedom of religion. This book tells how that profound liberty found its way into our Constitution’s First Amendment, before any other nation offered it to its citizens.

The book focuses on documents that led to our First Amendment, like the Flushing Remonstrance and Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. These original documents come with stories, but none is easy reading. By putting them in context, Joy Hakim hopes to help with the task of deciphering tough text.

Joy is the author of A History of US, a ten-volume U.S. history published by Oxford University Press. This prize-winning series was developed with young readers acting as editors.