Interesting book review about an interesting subject. They had me with the opening quote:

“Burke was liberal because he was conservative” — Russell Kirk (1918 – 1994) of Edmund Burke (1729 – 1797). Chong Yagyong: Korea’s Challenge to Orthodox Neo-Confucianism by Mark Setton tells the story of Korea’s last great Confucian scholar, who lived from 1762 to 1836 and wrote under the nom de plume of Tasan, “Tea Mountain.” The title of the book refers to the sage’s calls to reform Neo-Confucianism by eschewing its metaphysical ponderings and returning to the humanistic and practical teachings of Confucius and Mencius. He sought to show that “this prevailing ‘orthodoxy’ was, in important ways, unorthodox.”

Every time I come across the word “liberal” used in its true sense, I get a little burned up that we’ve conceded the word to the Left. I know, this is an old, well-gnawed bone, but one of the many reasons that I hope Liberal Fascism continues to garner a wide readership is because Jonah patiently illustrates that modern progressivism is hugely at odds with true liberalism, which is to say with what we now call “classical liberalism.” Of course, I also hope that there comes a day when we won’t really have to worry about what we call the Left any more than we worry about the Free Silver movement or Oneida-style communalism.