As with other books by Heinlein, traditional schools are denigrated, while learning "on the spot" is extolled: Rico is able to master the things required of him in military training without undue difficulty. Dubois also ridicules the idea of inalienable rights, such as "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness", arguing that people only have the rights that they are willing to fight and die for to protect. The novel appeals to scientific authority to justify this position; Dubois repeatedly states that his argument is mathematically demonstrable, statements which have led scholars to label the novel "hard science fiction", despite its social and political themes. The "moral decline" caused by this situation is depicted as having caused a global war between an alliance of the US, Britain, and Russia against the "Chinese Hegemony" in the year 1987. Despite the alliance between the US and Russia, this war has been described as demonstrating Heinlein's anti-communist beliefs, which saw "swarming hordes" of Chinese as a bigger threat. The novel draws some comparisons between the Chinese and the Arachnids, and suggests that the lessons of one war could be applied to the other. Reception To Heinlein's surprise, Starship Troopers won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1960. It has been acknowledged as one of the best-known and most influential works of science fiction. The novel is considered a landmark for the genre, having been described by a 1960 review as one of the ten best genre books of 1959, in a 2009 review as a key science fiction novel of the 1950s, and as the best-known example of military science fiction. It was also a personal landmark for Heinlein; it was one of his best-selling books, and is his best-known novel. The novel has been described as marking Heinlein's transition from writing juvenile fiction to a "more mature phase" as an author. Reviewing the book with others written for children, Floyd C. Gale of Galaxy Science Fiction wrote in 1960 that "Heinlein has penned a juvenile that really is not. This is a new and bitter and disillusioned Heinlein". Rating it 2.5 stars out of five for children, 4.5 stars for adults, and "?" for civilians, he believed that the novel would be "of exceptional interest to veterans with battle experience ... but youngsters will find it melancholy and verbose". Conversely, Michael Moorcock described it as Heinlein's last "straight" science fiction, before