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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 does Mencken believe about the universality of morality?

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

4. How does Mencken define government?

5. Who is the "ideal citizen of Christendom" according to Chapter 3?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

7. What is democracy's fundamental flaw? What aspect of human nature motivates democracy?

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

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

1) Abraham Lincoln

2) George Washington

3) Ulysses S. Grant

4) Theodore Roosevelt

5) Grover Cleveland

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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