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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 5, what is another profession Grossman mentions that natural warriors often enter besides the military?

2. In Chapter 6, Grossman indicates that an Islamic suicide bomber's authority figure is what?

3. Birth of a Nation is widely credited with increasing what?

4. Which of the following is not a psychological process for enabling killing as set out in Chapter 1?

5. By the late 1990's, approximately how many Vietnam vets were suffering from PTSD?

Short Essay Questions

1. What separates a natural warrior from a psychopath?

2. According to Grossman, why do young people idolize entertainment figures more than police and politicians?

3. According to Grossman in Chapter 3, what is the difference between military killing training and that provided by video games?

4. What factors traditionally assist in rationalization and acceptance after combat?

5. What is the Weinberger Doctrine?

6. What are the three categories of atrocity as delineated in Chapter 1?

7. What surprising insight into Vietnam does RB Anderson make in Chapter 1?

8. What hypothetical situation does Grossman relate in Chapter 3?

9. Which essential qualities makes a role model desirable as listed in Chapter 4?

10. In Chapter 2, what does Grossman say an atrocity does to a combat unit's group dynamic?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay about the urge not to kill over the course of history. What evidence does Grossman provide that soldiers going back to the American Civil War have chosen not to kill even in the face of death by enemy fire? What tactics did these soldiers use to avoid killing? At what point in the history of the American military did the non-firing problem become readily apparent? How did the military react to this?

Essay Topic 2

In the first half of the book, Grossman discusses the gap in psychiatric casualties between combatants and noncombatants. Write an essay about this gap. What did the military predict regarding psychiatric casualties among the civilian population affected by bombing in World War II? Why does Grossman expect that these estimates proved to be wrong? Why did psychiatric casualties prove higher among civilians in concentration camps? What does all of this say about proximity and killing as factors in psychiatric casualties?

Essay Topic 3

The likelihood of a soldier to kill in combat is markedly improved if he feels he is not the only culpable party to the killing. Write an essay about this diluting of guilt. What is group absolution, and what components of a group dynamic make it possible? Why is a soldier comforted by the sense that others around him are also killing? What is a crew-served weapon, and how is it effective in dispersing guilt for killing?

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