Starship Troopers

Heinlein graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1928 and continued his involvement with the military right through the Second World War. His award-winning book explores profound territory — what makes a citizen and what is the military’s responsibility to the state that supports it? A simple tale of a young man joining up and going to war with an alien race, ‘the Bugs’, hides layers of deep and complex moral and political philosophy, the core of which is the notion that social responsibility requires individual sacrifice.