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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How did morality come to be, according to Mencken?
(a) Morality evolved from the innate sense of right and wrong in children.
(b) Morality is the product of the woman's insidious influence over man.
(c) Morality is a creation of the Christian church.
(d) Morality evolved from social practices required to survive.

2. Who is the "ideal citizen of Christendom" according to Chapter 3?
(a) The hapless hero of a female novel.
(b) Young men full of passion.
(c) An emotionally cold woman.
(d) Young men drained of passion.

3. What does Mencken believe about the universality of morality?
(a) Morality depends upon the language one speaks.
(b) Morality is specific to regions of the world.
(c) Morality is specific to a particular individual.
(d) Morality is universal, and differences between moral systems are small.

4. What was the goal of early democratists?
(a) Philosophical frameworks to support democracy.
(b) Concrete material gains.
(c) The overthrow of the wealthy.
(d) Definitions of concepts like truth and beauty.

5. What does Mencken see as the problem with contemporary Protestantism?
(a) There are few, sensible, centrist Protestants left.
(b) Protestants suffer from a Jewish weakness for poetry.
(c) All modern Protestants are wishy-washy centrists.
(d) Protestants have forgotten the teachings of Jesus Christ.

6. What or who rules the American South?
(a) Baptist and Methodist "barbarism".
(b) A love for automobiles and technology.
(c) An aristocratic class.
(d) Secular liberals.

7. What is Mencken's opinion of original Christians?
(a) They were vulgar cads without imagination.
(b) The historical record is so poor that Mencken cannot form an opinion.
(c) They were "men's men" and should be looked upon as examples.
(d) They were patriots, akin to the Founding Fathers.

8. In "female novels," how are males portrayed according to Mencken?
(a) As "charlatans."
(b) As "heartthrobs."
(c) As "he-men."
(d) As "boobs."

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

10. What do most women think of their husbands according to Mencken?
(a) Women pity their husbands and consider them asses.
(b) Women are indifferent to their husbands and use them as mere tools.
(c) Women love and respect their husbands.
(d) Women fear and loathe their husbands.

11. At what event did Mencken first personally encounter William Jennings Bryan?
(a) Bryan's congressional trial for corruption.
(b) The Scopes Monkey trial.
(c) The funeral of Grover Cleveland.
(d) The 1912 Democratic National Convention.

12. Which is NOT one of the qualities Mencken ascribes to William Jennings Bryan?
(a) Preference to keep in the company of intellectuals.
(b) Lack of dignity.
(c) Insanity.
(d) Charlatanism.

13. What is Mencken's assessment of Abraham Lincoln?
(a) He was an out-and-out racist.
(b) He was a practical politician of great talent and rhetoric.
(c) He was a bumbler and not fit for office.
(d) He was a hard-living chauvinist dinosaur.

14. What is Mencken's opinion about the variety of political systems?
(a) Dictatorship is preferable to oligarchy.
(b) Aristocracy is by far the worst form of government.
(c) Different political systems accomplish vastly different things.
(d) All governments accomplish the same thing and there are very little differences.

15. What is Mencken's belief about morality?
(a) Morality is reserved only for the aristocracy.
(b) Morality is a made-up concept that doesn't exist.
(c) Morality is unnecessary.
(d) Morality is necessary.

Short Answer Questions

1. What group of people has been "overestimated" throughout the course of human history?

2. What does the "believer" type of person inevitably do?

3. Punishment for crime is too often what, according to Mencken?

4. Which politician does Mencken refer to as "a good man in a bad trade"?

5. What is the proper function of punishment for crimes?

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