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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 does Mencken dub "The Lady of Joy"?

2. What subject does Mencken begin his volume with?

3. New England owes much of its history to what group of people?

4. What aspect of President Grant does Mencken admire?

5. What does Mencken believe about the concept of evil?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe Mencken's thought experiment, in which he imagines if the Confederacy had won the Civil War.

2. What does Mencken believe about the nature of man and God? What is the consequence for believing in God? What about the soul?

3. Summarize Mencken's appraisal of Abraham Lincoln.

4. In Chapter 1, how does Mencken's view of humanity coincide with that of the modern scientist?

5. What is Mencken's view of punishment for crime? What is the function of punishment?

6. Summarize Mencken's appraisal of William Jennings Bryan. How is Mencken's opinion related to the Scopes Monkey Trial?

7. Is morality necessary in Mencken's view? How many people are moral people? Is there a good and evil, or is that a human-created concept?

8. Describe Mencken's conception of the Anglo-Saxon American. What are this person's flaws?

9. What is democracy's fundamental flaw? What aspect of human nature motivates democracy?

10. What effect did the Civil War have on the American South, and why was this conflict so disastrous to Mencken from a cultural standpoint?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Summarize Mencken's views on government, especially the democratic form of government. Include:

a) The average man's conception of government

b) The history and evolution of democracy as Mencken sees it

c) Why democracy is inherently flawed

d) The effects of democracy -- what it harms, what kind of people it produces

e) Mencken's prescription for an ideal form of government/leadership for the United States

Essay Topic 2

Chapter 17 is titled "Pedagogy".

1) Summarize Mencken's view of the teaching profession.

2) How does Mencken compare and contrast the teaching methods of yesteryear with contemporary methods?

3) What is the contemporary state of schoolboys? Why do they suffer?

4) What suggestions does Mencken have for improving education?

Essay Topic 3

Choose five of the types of people Mencken discusses in Chapter 2 and discuss:

a) The manner in which Mencken describes them

b) What Mencken believes motivates each type of people

c) What the defining characteristics of each type of people are

(see the answer keys)

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