View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How has Mencken organized his book?

2. Who derives several advantages from marriage?

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

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

5. What was the goal of early democratists?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Mencken have to say about politicians? What kind of people are they? How do they operate?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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 organized religion. Discuss each of the following topics:

a) The notion that the universe is constructed or divinely designed

b) The notion that God can only have a net positive effect on Man

c) The modern problem with Protestantism

d) The doctrine of free will

e) The relationship between science and religion

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

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

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,062 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample