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. In the Prologue, what town did an Italian poet occupy with Italian mutineers?

2. When were their ethnic cleansings in the Balkans and Rwanda?

3. When did George Santayana leave the United States for Europe?

4. When was the tract Le Philosophe, which was reissued by Voltaire, originally issued?

5. When did Johann Gottlieb insist on a planned and self-sufficient economy?

Short Essay Questions

1. In "Clearing a Space," whose ideas need to be understood and then dismantled?

2. In the Prologue during the first half of the 20th century, who embraced the theories of Social Darwinism?

3. In the Prologue, what view does the author say that the book takes of a universal crisis?

4. In the Prologue, what was the attitude and thought about the world after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989?

5. In "Clearing a Space," what did Fukuyama and Zakaria have to say about Western civilization and world development?

6. In "Clearing a Space," what has happened because of the belief systems and institutions that Britain, France, and the United States initiated and advanced?

7. In "Loving Onself Through Others," how is Rosseau's history of the human heart still playing itself out?

8. In "Clearing a Space," what historical calamities undermined the idea of Western universalism?

9. In "Clearing a Space," what became the universalist creed and what was seen as a marker of progress?

10. In "Loving Oneself Through Others," what was Montaigne's impression of moneymaking, and how did that idea change in the 18th century?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

There are different influences that cause violence. What are some difference mediums that can incite violence? How do modern influences in literature, technology and other mediums incite violence? What is revealed about various ways that violence is caused and how modernism increases violence?

Essay Topic 2

Mishra connects Timothy McVeigh and his actions to the concept of “ressentiment” (276). Why was it surprising when McVeigh was arrested for the Oklahoma City bombing? What did McVeigh’s writings and speech reveal about his dissatisfactions with life? How did McVeigh’s actions and ideals relate to the concept of ressentiment?

Essay Topic 3

Mishra shares his upbringing and education. Why does Mishra share information about his upbringing and education? What does he reveal about prejudice and bias by sharing this information?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 908 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample