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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 9, Democracy, Chapter 10, Americans.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the proper function of punishment for crimes?
(a) As a deterrent only.
(b) As a mere incentivizing device.
(c) To create a sense of false dignity in society.
(d) As a deterrent, but also more.

2. Per Chapter 2, what kind of person has Mencken never met?
(a) An altruist who actually did good for anybody.
(b) A quack with a conscience.
(c) A moral man that was honorable.
(d) A metaphysician who was intellectually curious.

3. What does the "believer" type of person inevitably do?
(a) Annoys the company he or she is with.
(b) Betrays friends as well as lovers.
(c) Maintains a faith in the improbable.
(d) Thinks they are better than everyone.

4. What is the relationship between Anglo-Saxons and civilization?
(a) Anglo-Saxons are the most civilized of all white people.
(b) Anglo-Saxons are the least civilized of all white people.
(c) Anglo-Saxons created civilization, and are its last bastion of hope.
(d) Anglo-Saxons choose to live outside civilization because they are morally superior.

5. Which is NOT one of Mencken's view of humankind as expressed in Chapter 1?
(a) Man is the product of random and meaningless processes.
(b) Man is prone to believe in ridiculous things.
(c) Man is full of errors.
(d) Man is the center of the universe, and rightly so.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is Mencken's belief about the concept of sin?

2. Why might "reflective and skeptical men" refrain from suicide?

3. Who is the "ideal citizen of Christendom" according to Chapter 3?

4. What does Mencken NOT believe about the possibility for morality to change over time?

5. Why is Mencken unable to embrace democratic political theory, as he himself states it in Chapter 9?

(see the answer key)

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