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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. In the story at the beginning of Chapter 3, what percentage of soldiers questioned said they were certain they had killed even one enemy in combat?

2. How does the military normally deal with the problem of exhaustion in combat?

3. Which of the following is a component of Demands of Authority as delineated in Chapter 1?

4. In Chapter 1, Grossman reveals that the majority of active World War II soldiers did what?

5. Chapter 7 begins with several vets joking about raping and murdering which public figure?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the Yale electroshock study connect with Grossman's thesis in Chapter 1?

2. What is the silent conspiracy does Grossman discuss in Chapter 4?

3. As discussed in Chapter 3, what is the emotional advantage of hand grenades?

4. Describe the Vietnam story of Chapter 4.

5. How was the Roman centurion model more effective than the Greek phalanx, according to Grossman?

6. What role does enemy morale play in the choice to kill?

7. What are the primary components of Exhaustion as outlined in Chapter 3?

8. How did mechanical distance change the perception of war in the 1990's?

9. What surprising fact regarding soldier's fears in combat is revealed in Chapter 2?

10. What inefficiency of edged-weapon combat does Grossman reveal in Chapter 5?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Early in the book, Grossman admits that he does not think women should work if they have children. Later in the text, he presents arguments that women do more damage in combat than good. Write an essay exploring the author's attitude toward women. What reasons does he cite for women to be left out of combat service? Are these arguments related tot heir abilities in there arena? Are then, in fact, judgments about male soldiers that fight with them? Do these arguments seem to be colored by Grossman's prejudices?

Essay Topic 2

One of the tools that Grossman uses incredibly effectively in ON KILLING is the anecdote. Frequently throughout the book, he will illustrate a trend denoted by statistics and data by incorporating an appropriate war story. In an essay, choose three such war stories and analyze them. What trend in warfare do they illustrate? How do they subvert the tradition of war stories? Do they add an emotional underpinning to the policy speak of the remainder of the text?

Essay Topic 3

Perhaps the centerpiece of Grossman's research, the killing process, through which the author explains how a person chooses to kill and then processes the killing - or inability to kill - after, is the subject of most of the second half of the book. Write a three-part essay about this process:

Part 1) Begin the essay by discussing the steps in the killing process. Where does it begin and, ideally, how does a killer resolve the act and its emotional repercussions? Must a killer go through all of the steps in the process?

Part 2) Using the fallout of the Vietnam War as a model, discuss what happens when the latter steps of the process are stunted? What factors are key in allowing a killer to rationalize and accept that he has killed? How were these denied to Vietnam vets?

Part 3) At one point in ON KILLING, Dave Grossman applies the killing process to an entire culture, namely America after two wars of the twentieth century. Discuss the way America collectively processed killing after Hiroshima and the first Gulf War. How did this process affect American leadership?

(see the answer keys)

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