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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 kind of men does a democracy produce?

2. What is the relationship between Anglo-Saxons and civilization?

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

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

5. Per Chapter 2, what kind of person has Mencken never met?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Mencken's opinion of government? What is the role of government? Is one system of government preferable to another?

2. Who is Professor Thorstein Veblen, and what is Mencken's opinion of him and his work?

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

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

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

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

7. Summarize Mencken's appraisal of Abraham Lincoln.

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

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

10. What is the degree of women's "civility" according to Mencken? How does emotion factor in to civility?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Chapters 19 and 20 discuss Science and Quackery, respectively.

1) What is Mencken's belief about life on other planets? How have contemporary astronomers made an error on the subject?

2) What criticism does Mencken have about "Mr. Ayres"'s view on science, and how does this criticism relate to Mencken's own view of human nature?

3) What kind of science constitutes "quackery" in Mencken's opinion? How can "real" science be separated from "quack" science? How might Mencken account for the prevalence of quackery?

4) Give a few examples of quack science, as related by Mencken in Chapter 20.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the Chapter 29 "buffoonery" in which Mencken portrays a dialogue involving Pharoah Cheops.

1) Summarize the "plot" and premise of the story.

2) Discuss how the story relates to contemporary concerns.

3) Speculate as to why Mencken may have used Pharaoh Cheops and his world to comment on contemporary issues. What does Mencken accomplish by commentary designed in this fashion?

Essay Topic 3

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.

(see the answer keys)

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