Rye Barcott

Rye Barcott is co-founder and CEO of WithHonor.org, a movement to build a cross-partisan coalition of veterans in Congress who can help fix our broken politics and put principles before politics. Barcott served previously in the U.S. Marine Corps, where he first came across NDI’s courageous and important work enabling elections in Fallujah. Barcott co-founded Carolina for Kibera, an NGO that helps prevent violence and invests in young leaders in the Kibera informal settlement of Nairobi, and he has served as an NDI election observer in Kenya. After the Marines, he worked in the private sector at Duke Energy and co-founded and led the impact investment firm Double Time Capital.

Rye Barcott’s first book, It Happened on the Way to War, chronicled his experience co-founding a non-governmental organization to prevent violence while simultaneously serving as a Marine during combat operations. Time Magazine and the Gates Foundation recognized the organization, Carolina For Kibera, as a model of “participatory development” in conditions of extreme poverty.  It Happened on the Way to War has been adopted widely as required reading by universities and high schools.  It was named best nonfiction title in 2011 by the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association, and one of four top nonfiction titles of the year by Reader’s Digest.  Bono acclaimed it as a “wild ride,” and Tim O’Brien called it an “emboldening manifesto.”

Barcott’s writing has appeared in the New York Times, Harvard Business Review, and Washington Post.  He is a TED Fellow and motivational speaker with American Program Bureau.  In 2012, President Obama appointed Barcott as a representative of the veteran community to the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.  His latest book, Courage Can Save Us, is forthcoming from Bloomsbury in June 2026.

COURAGE CAN SAVE US

Praise

“For much of the twentieth century, military service helped shape American leadership. Nearly two-thirds of our presidents wore the nation’s uniform, and in the decades after World War II veterans held the majority of seats in Congress—an era when bipartisanship flourished. In Courage Can Save Us, Rye Barcott shines a dramatic spotlight on ten veterans—men and women, Republicans and Democrats—now serving in elected office across the country. Forged in service and tested by sacrifice, their inspiring stories reveal how courage, character, and common purpose can still renew our democracy—and restore hope for its future.” — Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and author of Leadership: In Turbulent Times

“Rye Barcott and I came of age as Marines in Iraq. We carry the costs of the post-9/11 wars and the questions they left behind about our country’s character and what kind of leadership it demands. So do many of the ten Americans he profiles. He writes about these elected officials with candor, clarity, and hard-earned understanding. An important book for our generation—and for the country we still believe in.” — Elliot Ackerman, National Book Award finalist and author of 2034 and 2054

“These are the times that buy men’s souls. Thank God, some souls are not for sale. Politics has never been a refuge for the pure. Ambition, compromise, and pressure come with the territory. Yet the stories in this book remind us that even there—especially there—courage still emerges. In these tightly paced portraits, Rye Barcott shows how imperfect men and women who have worn the cloth of the nation choose service over self-interest at moments of consequence. A bracing and hopeful account of character in a divided chapter of our national life.” — Karl Marlantes, author of Matterhorn and What It Is Like to Go to War

From U.S. Marine and co-founder of With Honor, the story of principled veterans—across party lines—who shape our nation and inspire us to serve with courage in our own lives.

When most Americans think of courage, Congress is the last place they look. And while more Americans than ever reject party labels, politics 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 the public arena. Ambitious and altruistic, forthright and flawed, they confront the moral and personal costs of leadership in a polarized age—public attacks, private doubt, and the risk of losing everything they’ve 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 also an examination of real courage in its many forms—and a challenge to readers to consider how courage can strengthen our democracy and our own lives.

PRAISE FOR IT HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO WAR

“[The book] is detailed, vivid, earnest, and remarkable in rendering with equal intensity his interactions with poor children in Nairobi and his experiences at OCS or on patrol in Fallujah.” – James Fallows, The Atlantic

“It Happened On The Way To War is a heart-warming tale, told with both passion and candor. I think it should be required reading for two communities that are often hostile to each other: the NGO world and soldiers. Too often, NGO types see soldiers as thoughtless killers, and soldiers see the NGO community as pie-in-the-sky dreamers.” – Bobby Ghosh, Time Magazine

The New York Times Op-Ed piece: The Rugged Altruists, David Brooks, August 22, 2011

The New York Times: Nicholas Kristof's On The Ground blog: When It Comes to Helping Others, Just Do It, May 18, 2011