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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 Swiss-French writer pointed out Napoleon's seduction?

2. What was the occupation of Rousseau's father?

3. When did Voltaire die?

4. How many people did Anders Behring Breivik kill in Norway in 2011?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. In "Loving Oneself Through Others," in Le Mondain, what did Voltaire tell people to do?

2. In the Prologue, what mystery did Emile Durkheim struggle with in his book from 1897?

3. In "Clearing a Space," what did Timothy McVeigh write about a demagogic present in 1992?

4. In October of 1749, where was Diderot and why was he there?

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

6. At the end of the Prologue, what does the author believe is a measure of the global civil war taking place?

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

8. In the Prologue what are many themes of the global unrest that the author has seen?

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

10. In "Clearing a Space," who did Reinhold Niebuhr mock?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

Essay Topic 2

Voltaire and Rousseau had differing viewpoints, especially regarding modernity. How would you describe the viewpoints of Voltaire and of Rousseau? How were their ideas about wealth and materialism different? What did their differences reveal about the meaning of modernity?

Essay Topic 3

Germans were some of the first to embrace nationalism. Why did German thinkers and artist reject French civilization? What did they embrace instead? What is revealed about nationalism through German nationalists?

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