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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. How intelligent are women according to Mencken?

2. What subject does Mencken begin his volume with?

3. How does Mencken feel about the overall capacity for virtue in the human race?

4. What kind of people are most often forgotten by historical records, per Chapter 12?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. Summarize Mencken's appraisal of Abraham Lincoln.

2. Per Chapter 2, describe Mencken's summation of the following types of people: the romantic, the believer, the metaphysician, and the altruist.

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

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

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

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

7. What is Mencken's view of romantic love?

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

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

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

In Chapter 15 Mencken describes several "Odd Fish." Discuss and summarize the relevance of the following:

1) Mr. Gray

2) Valentino

3) Sister Aimee

4) Charles Joseph Bonaparte

Why are these people "Odd Fish" in Mencken's opinion? What is "normal" versus "odd" for Mencken? How does this classification reflect upon Mencken's overall view of human nature?

Essay Topic 2

1) Discuss Mencken's thoughts on death and suicide. What is the popular misconception of death? What is the use of suicide, and why might people refrain from committing it?

2) Discuss Mencken's thoughts on death and suicide in the context of a) his view of human nature in general, and b) his view on religion. How do these viewpoints inform one another?

Essay Topic 3

Describe in-depth Mencken's views of the following people:

1) William Jennings Bryan

2) Woodrow Wilson

3) Warren G. Harding

4) Thorstein Veblen

5) Calvin Coolidge

6) Oliver Wendell Holmes

(see the answer keys)

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