The phrase "Why not?" may form the central theme of Why Not, Lafayette? When people told Lafayette that what he wanted could not be done, he would respond, "Why not?" This he made his motto ("Cur non?'"), having it included in his coat of arms.

Throughout his adult life, he tried to do what others believed could not be done. His service in the Revolutionary War is an example of this; America's poorly fed, poorly equipped army was fighting the world's best equipped, best trained army, the British army. After his return to France, he advocated the rights of poor people and was an exponent of human rights in a land in which might made right, in which kings, revolutionaries, and a self-made emperor enforced their views by killing those who disagreed with them. It is possible that only Lafayette's popularity with common...