From a U.S. Marine and co-founder of With Honor, and written ahead of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, comes the story of principled veterans—including Wes Moore, Todd Young, Mikie Sherrill, and Don Bacon—who work across party lines to shape our nation and inspire us to serve with courage in our own lives.

When most Americans think of acts of courage, elected office is rarely the first place they look. And while more Americans than ever reject party labels, the political arena remains dominated by the loudest voices at each extreme. This moment demands leaders willing to govern across party lines, resist the incentives of modern politics, and choose courage over outrage.

One group is uniquely suited to meet that challenge: America’s veterans. Courage Can Save Us follows nine veterans and a former FBI agent—five Democrats and five Republicans—who have carried the ethic of service from the battlefield into public life. Ambitious and altruistic, forthright and flawed, they confront the moral and personal costs of leadership in an unsettled age: public attacks, private doubt, and the risk of losing everything they have worked for in service of the common good.

More than a collection of political profiles, Courage Can Save Us is a portrait of a bipartisan generation of post-9/11 leaders striving to rise above polarization and a culture of contempt. It is an examination of courage in its many forms—and a challenge to all of us to consider how courage can strengthen our democracy, and our own lives.