The following is the February 2024 summary of the St. Croix Review:

Barry MacDonald, in “Parents and Children Are Cannon Fodder in America,” writes of the difficulties of politics in America nowadays.

Allan Brownfeld, in “There Is Growing Danger That, Without Any Action by Congress, the U.S. May Be Drifting into a Major War in the Middle East,” recalls that the last declaration of war by Congress was on Dec. 8th, 1941, after the attack on Pearl Harbor; in “We Are Approaching the 250th Anniversary of the Constitution, Which Is Increasingly Being Bypassed,” he writes that freedom is rare and precious in the history of the world, and that American freedom is breaking down; in “Examining the History of America’s Approach to Race and Diversity,” he details the enormous progress America has made in race equality since its founding.

Paul G. Kengor, in “The MLK They Ignore,” reminds of us of Martin Luther King’s adherence to natural law, freedom of conscience, and just laws; in “Russian Dissident Alexei Navalny Dies in Brutal Arctic Gulag,” he puts Navalny’s death in the context of historical Russian brutality; in “The Last Hero of the Cold War . . . Lech Walesa Survives,” he tells the story of a Soviet-era attempted assassination of the brave leader of the Polish Solidarity movement while he was in Rome.

Gary Scott Smith, in “What Did Cause the Civil War?” considers many factors that divided America more than 160 years ago, and he concludes, despite comprehensively better historical knowledge, there are no simple explanations.

John A. Sparks in “Time to Throw Chevron Overboard: Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo,” writes about a case before the Supreme Court that could overrule the “Chevron deference” precedent, a precedent that has allowed the federal bureaucracy for four decades to balloon the number of regulations without Congressional restraint. The overthrow of “Chevron deference” would be an historic turn away from out-of-control federal regulation, and a renewal of American freedom.

Timothy S. Goeglein, in “Teaching Identity While Losing Our History,” makes the case that American history is being taught with a view that pits American groups against each other, which destroys rather than uplifts our heritage.

David L. Cawthon, in “Hegel on Leadership: The Unfolding of the Absolute,” examines ideals; freedom; the Geist (spirit of the age); thesis, antithesis, synthesis, and thus the dialectic.

Derek Suszko, in “Christ and Nietzsche: Toward Reconciliation,” examines the weaknesses and strengths of the philosopher and modern American Christianity.

Robert DeStefano, in “Rock Ledge,” offers a meditation on family and nature.

Francis DeStefano, in the “The Many Faces of Edward G. Robinson,” reveals the surprising versatility of an actor who was small and stocky, who was never nominated for an academy award, and yet who nevertheless became a star during Hollywood’s Golden Age; in “Early Musicals,” he reviews movie musicals that feature spectacular dancing.

Jigs Gardner, in “Letters from a Conservative Farmer: The Simple Life, Continued,” reveals the dawning recognition on himself and on his wife, Jo Ann, of the severe challenges that confronted them in being self-reliant in the country. The trials involved cutting and hauling wood, managing animals, and feeding themselves and their children.

Jigs Gardner, in “Writers for Conservatives: 9 — Realism and Reality,” characterizes leftist literary style as sour, nasty, negative — he points the way toward a conservative literary renaissance.