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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. After Gollancz broke with the Communist, which party did he begin to support?

2. Where was the ancestral home that Wilson inherited?

3. What year did Gollancz break with the Communist party?

4. How did Wilson regard women?

5. When the Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936, what support did Orwell give to the republic?

Short Essay Questions

1. After Wilson's visit to Russia, what were his impressions of the country and people on his return home?

2. Why does Johnson describe Russell as being detached from physical reality?

3. What business arrangements did Brecht make for himself in 1949 that gave him artistic freedom as well as great revenue?

4. How did Hellman view her mother?

5. How does Johnson describe Wilson's writings?

6. What event caused Orwell to realize that the left was capable of injustice and cruelty of kind almost unknown?

7. What redeeming quality does Johnson specifically note of Brecht?

8. Why does Johnson believe that Gollancz is an important intellectual if he did not give birth to a salient idea himself?

9. What type of relationships did Gollancz have with people from the working class?

10. What did Orwell think of fellow intellectuals in comparison to the poor?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Why is Bertrand Russell called an abstract philosopher? Using textual evidence discuss what the underlying premise of his philosophy was and how it affected his work and other intellectuals.

Essay Topic 2

Johnson claims that Karl Marx's theories had more impact on people than any other intellectual. Discuss why this is and whether or not you agree with Johnson's conclusion.

Essay Topic 3

Define the philosophy of existentialism and how it influenced society, both in the time of Jena-Paul Sartre and today.

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