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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 Chapter 7, Grossman says what has made killing easier for soldiers?

2. What city did King Sennacherib destroy?

3. In terms of effective leadership, what disadvantage do mercenaries and gang leaders have?

4. What does Gossman say edged weapons produce effectively at the beginning of Chapter 5?

5. According to Grossman in Chapter 2, who is often given the cold shoulder in the military?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Grossman use his distance-guilt corollary to explain the oppression of the poor in Chapter 1?

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

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

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

5. What is a crew-served weapon?

6. How did military predictions regarding civilian bombings and psychiatric casualties prove completely wrong in World War II?

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

8. How is the dissuasive potential of familiarity discussed in Chapter 4?

9. In Chapter 7, what comparison does Grossman draw between firing a gun and masturbation?

10. Why does the Vietnam Vet quoted in Chapter 7 choose to leave the army after six tours?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In the first sections of ON KILLING, Dave Grossman discusses how a myriad of causes are often cited for causing psychiatric casualties in combat. He goes through them an refutes all by the trauma of killing. Write a three part essay in which you discuss the argument for and against several of these potential causes. What effect does each cause have on a soldier in combat? How has this manifested itself in the field? What argument does Grossman use to refute the assertion that it is the primary cause of psychiatric casualties?

Part 1) Exhaustion.

Part 2) Fear.

Part 3) Hate.

Essay Topic 2

Throughout the book, Grossman has argues that conditioning has been the key to increasing shooting rates in combat zones. It bypasses the conscious mind's inclination to avoid killing. Write a three-part essay analyzing the types of conditioning used in a military context:

Part 1) What is standard conditioning, and how is it connected to Pavlov's work with dogs? How does this type of conditioning manifest itself in military training? What specific defenses is it trying to overcome? What is its goal?

Part 2) What is operant conditioning, and how is it connected to Skinner's work with rats? To what extent is military operant training more subtly employed than traditional conditioning? How does this conditioning alter soldier behavior in chaotic combat?

Part 3) In military emulation of a role model, who is the standard soldier's role model? What does this role model represent to the soldier, and how does he wish to emulate him? What aspects of aggression and manhood does this affect?

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay about the root causes and addressing of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the American military? What step of the killing process is interrupted, leading to PTSD, and what factors are involved in this stunting of emotional processing? How does PTSD manifest itself? In what conflict did numbers of soldiers suffering from PTSD skyrocket? How long did it take the American military to address this concern, and what has been done?

(see the answer keys)

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