Elliot Ackerman’s 6 favorite books on war and duty

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Marine veteran and former CIA officer Elliot Ackerman is the best-selling author of several novels and memoirs. His most recent book, 2054, is a thriller set in post–World WarIII America and co-authored by retired Adm. James Stavridis. It is now out in paperback.

‘The Singularity Is Near’ by Ray Kurzweil (2005)

In the future, when technology allows our intelligence and even our personalities to upload into supercomputers, what will it mean to be human? This is the singularity predicted by Kurzweil, one where our intelligence is infinite and our life is never-­ending. But if the meaning of life is that it ends, can humans find meaning in endless life? Buy it here.

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‘Marie Antoinette’ by Stefan Zweig (1932)

A nation beset by endless wars. Exploding debt. An out-of-touch elite. Sound familiar? Zweig was one of the greatest writers of the early 20th century. An Austrian-born Jew, he wrote from the perspective of his own time, one that was hurtling toward the catastrophe of world war. Buy it here.

‘Starship Troopers’ by Robert A. Heinlein (1959)

A very cheesy and sort of fantastic movie was made decades ago from this science-­fiction classic. The book itself is very different. It is a meditation on citizenship and the role of the soldier in society. When I served in the Marine infantry, it was required reading in our platoon. Buy it here.

‘Hero of Two Worlds’ by Mike Duncan (2021)

The Marquis de Lafayette was a revolutionary, but he was also a moderate. Duncan does a fantastic job telling his story, which is a thrilling adventure, one filled with long odds, battles won, and tragic disillusionment. Lafayette was devoured by both the leftist revolutionaries he enabled and the right-wing aristocrats he tried to protect after he returned to France. Buy it here.

‘The Man Who Came Uptown’ by George Pelecanos (2018)

No one has done more to chronicle life in Washington, D.C., than George Pelecanos. This novel is a favorite. An ex-­convict reckons with a city that’s changed and the debt he owes to those who helped gain his release. Buy it here.

‘The Little Drummer Girl’ by John le Carré (1983)

Charlie is an up-and-­coming young actress when she gets recruited into the Israeli secret services to act as bait for a Palestinian terrorist. As she enters this theater of the real, she quickly loses track of whose side she is on. This is one of le Carré’s finest books. It is complex and beautifully written. Buy it here.