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

3. What subject does Mencken begin his volume with?

4. What is Mencken's opinion of the American South?

5. What aspect of Lincoln's historical persona does Mencken doubt, or at least question?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

4. What does Mencken see as a popular misconception about death? What is his opinion of suicide?

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

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

7. Describe Mencken's contention that democracy is a "self-limiting disease." What does he mean by that? Is there any good aspects to democracy?

8. What does Mencken feel about the relationship between science and religion?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Summarize Mencken's views on women. Discuss each of the following topics:

a) Women's level of intelligence

b) Women's level of civility

c) The institution of marriage, and how it affects men and women

d) The role of beauty in man-woman relationships

e) The role of romantic love in man-woman relationships

Essay Topic 2

Summarize Chapter 1 which discusses the nature of man.

a) What is the nature of man to Mencken? What is Man guided by?

b) What is the nature of the relationship between God and Man?

c) What is the nature of the relationship between Man and animal?

d) What part does "delusion" play in man's relationship to the universe?

Essay Topic 3

1) Discuss Mencken's historical involvement in the Scopes Monkey Trial.

2) Summarize Mencken's own account of his attendance of the trial.

3) What was Mencken's impression of the townspeople? Of Clarence Darrow? Of William Jennings Bryan?

4) How does the conflict at the heart of the trial reflect upon Mencken's own values and convictions? Why was the trial so important to Mencken?

(see the answer keys)

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