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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who did Mencken NOT count among the "crackpots" present in "The Wallace Paranoia"?

2. In "The Hills of Zion," why did a woman warn against the reading of books?

3. What was Mencken's attitude toward Grover Cleveland?

4. What was the subject of Mencken's final published article?

5. Complete the following aphorism found in "Sententiae": "Democracy is..."

Short Essay Questions

1. What type of people attended the Progressive Party convention of 1948?

2. Why did Mencken take issue with Oliver Wendell Holmes' final court case?

3. Contemporaries wrote that Calvin Coolidge bore several similarities to Abraham Lincoln. Why did Mencken disagree with this claim?

4. What was the content of "Sententiae"?

5. According to "The Wallace Paranoia," what did candidate Henry Wallace do during the convention of the Progressive Party?

6. What opinions did Mencken render in "Masters of Tone"?

7. Why did Mencken miss corporal punishment in schools in "Travail"?

8. What was Mencken's opinion of chiropractic?

9. How was FDR able to win the Democratic National Convention of 1932?

10. Why are artists "anti-patriotic," according to Mencken in "The Artist"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Democracy was mentioned in "A Blind Spot" and "A Glance Ahead," among other articles. What is Mencken's attitude toward democracy? What are the consequences of a democratic form of government? How does democracy succeed (or fail) because of (or despite) the common people?

Essay Topic 2

Mencken was interested in reviving an American intellectual movement.

A) Who were the forefathers of this movement? What texts are important?

B) What does Mencken feel is the current state of the American intellectual movement?

C) What can be done to further the movement?

Essay Topic 3

Beauty and ugliness were topics of the articles "The Lure of Beauty" and "The Libido of the Ugly."

A) How does Mencken define beauty? How is beauty related to art criticism?

B) Is beauty objective or subjective? Cite examples in the text of how Mencken might answer this question.

C) How is beauty related to physical attraction?

(see the answer keys)

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