Live at the National Constitution Center
Oct 20, 2026 · 59 min · 11 segments
**Richard Brookhiser**, senior editor at *National Review*, joins to discuss his latest book…
And as we get to the end of our conversation here, I'd love your reflections here, Richard, in thinking about Lafayette's tour and broadly the role of, I guess one way to put it is sort of like it comes to the title of your book, but the role of heroes.
One is sort of the role a hero like Lafayette might play in an early republic at America 50.
But more broadly, as we think about public memory today in light of America 250, you know, what role do constitutional heroes like Lafayette play within a republic?
Because of who they are and because of their accomplishments, they stand out.
Lafayette certainly knows this, and he plays to this, and that is a gift he has.
So he uses the second gift in one-on-one situations, and then he uses the first in public situations.
You know, what could they do all by themselves? They have to express what people want or what people may want or what people are not yet sure they want.
And he says over and over again on this trip, he's being praised endlessly.
If I did not have small art Republican troops, I could not have fought my battles the way I did.
And as we get to the end of our conversation here, I'd love your reflections here, Richard, in thinking about Lafayette's tour and broadly the role of, I guess one way to put it is sort of like it comes to the title of your book, but the role of heroes.
One is sort of the role a hero like Lafayette might play in an early republic at America 50.
But more broadly, as we think about public memory today in light of America 250, you know, what role do constitutional heroes like Lafayette play within a republic?
Because of who they are and because of their accomplishments, they stand out.
Lafayette certainly knows this, and he plays to this, and that is a gift he has.
So he uses the second gift in one-on-one situations, and then he uses the first in public situations.
You know, what could they do all by themselves? They have to express what people want or what people may want or what people are not yet sure they want.
And he says over and over again on this trip, he's being praised endlessly.
If I did not have small art Republican troops, I could not have fought my battles the way I did.
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