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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. Who developed an early printing press in 1436?

2. What states that the more we create images to "expand experience" the more we inevitably narrow experience?

3. What refers to reputation or influence arising from success, achievement, rank, or other favorable attributes?

4. In Chapter 6, Boorstin suggests that the greatest challenge Americans are now dealing with is what?

5. What Muzak designer suggested that his company was more the business of programming than the business of music?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Boorstin define "passivity" in the image in Chapter 5 - Section I?

2. What does Boorstin believe is responsible for the mass production of art? What effect does this cause?

3. What changes took place in the binding industry for printmaking? What effect did this have?

4. How does Boorstin compare domestic and foreign issues in Chapter 6 - Section III?

5. What does Boorstin suggest was the impact of Reader's Digest on the populace? What is Reader's Digest?

6. What suggestions does Boorstin give to the American people at the close of the book?

7. What are the first two aspects of images discussed by Boorstin in Chapter 5 - Section I?

8. What changes to the printing industry does Boorstin describe in Chapter 4 - Section I?

9. How does Boorstin define movies as a pseudo-event?

10. What does Boorstin write of the evolution of linguistics and the pseudo-event in Chapter 6 - Section III?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does Boorstin define "the leak"? What is its purpose? What example does he give from the 1950s?

Essay Topic 2

Describe the impact of the development of the hotel and motel industry in America. Where and how did Conrad Hilton establish his first hotel?

Essay Topic 3

Boorstin posits that there are two main "extravagant expectations" that Americans hold. What are these and what are examples of each?

(see the answer keys)

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