From a former U.S. Marine Corps officer and co-founder of the cross-party organisation With Honor comes a portrait of elected leaders who put service before self – and show what courage looks like in the public arena.

When most people think of courage, politics is the last place they look. The story is American, but the heart of the question reaches far beyond the United States: what does courageous leadership look like in democracies when compromise is punished, outrage is rewarded, and trust in public life is eroding?

The ten leaders in this book – five Democrats and five Republicans – carry an ethic of service into elected office and a commitment to work across party lines in the face of bitter divisions. Ambitious and altruistic, forthright and flawed, they confront the moral and personal costs of leadership at a moment of democratic strain: public attacks, private doubt, and the risk of losing everything they have worked for when they put the common good before political survival.

These are not portraits of flawless heroes. They are stories of character tested in public life, and of a generation shaped by the years after 9/11 striving to rise above a culture of contempt. This is an examination of courage in its many forms – and a challenge to all of us to consider how courage can strengthen democracy as well as our own lives.