Helena Rosenblatt’s Helpful Book: The Lost History of Liberalism

Colleagues the other day were lamenting the use of the word “liberal” to mean “statist.” In an older usage, still prevalent in Europe, it means the opposite. To its critics on the right, statism is a malady primarily of the Left. They call the Left “liberal,” at least in America. I’ve stopped using “liberal” in that sense. The far Left — call it the woke Left — is illiberal almost by definition.

So, alas, is the far Right, the other end of the horseshoe. The war between Right and Left is longstanding and…