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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. What is Mencken's opinion of romantic love?

2. What is Mencken's assessment of Abraham Lincoln?

3. What is the purpose of monogamy, according to Mencken?

4. What is Mencken's opinion of the belief that man has a soul, according to Chapter 1?

5. At what event did Mencken first personally encounter William Jennings Bryan?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Mencken's opinion of the contemporary American South? What are its features? What rules the South?

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

3. Name four historic events Mencken mentions in Chapter 12, and his opinion of them.

4. In Chapter 1, what comparison does Mencken make between man and animal? Who is "superior"?

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

6. Summarize Mencken's appraisal of Abraham Lincoln.

7. What is Mencken's view of monogamy/marriage?

8. What is the origin of morality according to Mencken?

9. 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?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe in-depth Mencken's views of the following people (and specific works, if applicable):

1) Ludwig van Beethoven

2) Richard Strauss

3) Johann Strauss

4) Johannes Brahms

5) Richard Wagner

6) Franz Schubert

Essay Topic 2

Compare and contrast Mencken's view of the American South, pre-Civil War versus post-Civil War. Include defining characteristics, form of government, qualities of people, culture, wealth, and anything else you feel is relevant to the discussion.

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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