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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 13, Statesmen, Chapter 14, American Immortals.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Privately, politicians are what kind of people?
(a) Charming individuals.
(b) Criminals.
(c) Exceedingly eccentric.
(d) Lying wretches.

2. What comparison does Mencken make between man and animal in Chapter 1?
(a) Many animals have superior faculties to man.
(b) The only thing man cannot do that animal can is fly.
(c) Man in every way has faculties that are superior to animals.
(d) The faculties of animal and man precisely balance when taken as a whole.

3. What aspect of Lincoln's historical persona does Mencken doubt, or at least question?
(a) His pragmatic, practical approach to political problems.
(b) His status as an outsider and a "dark horse."
(c) His reputation for being a great orator.
(d) His adherence to Christianity.

4. Who does Mencken dub "The Lady of Joy"?
(a) The Virgin Mary.
(b) The happily married woman.
(c) A prostitute.
(d) His wife.

5. What effect has intermarriage had on the American South?
(a) It has infused the American South with the very best qualities of Western Europe.
(b) It has negatively blurred the lines between high class and low class.
(c) It has positively blurred the lines between high class and low class.
(d) It has introduced culture such as art and literature into the American South.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which is NOT one of the qualities Mencken ascribes to William Jennings Bryan?

2. Who rules American culture, according to Chapter 10?

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

4. What does the "metaphysical" type of person inevitably do?

5. Before democracy came to be, what did people believe this system of government to be?

(see the answer key)

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