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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. What criticism did Dr. William Bayard Hale have for Woodrow Wilson?

2. What was the subject of Walt Whitman's "Democratic Vistas"?

3. What did Mencken feel about "American thinking"?

4. Which book was Mencken's touchstone into literature?

5. According to the editor, why were the 1930s Mencken's "downfall"?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is democracy's aim, in "A Blind Spot"? What is a crime in the eyes of democracy?

2. Why do men usually marry women who are "basically hideous"?

3. According to Mencken, Theodore Dreiser had what emotional effect on the reader?

4. Why did Mencken believe it was advantageous for him to have not attended college?

5. Instead of military generals, who did Mencken wish to award medals to in "Star-Spangled Man"?

6. Why are "handsome men" suspicious, according to "The Lure of Beauty"?

7. What was Gene the magistrate's approach to law and justice in "Recollections of Notable Cops"?

8. What was Mencken's ideal form of government?

9. What questions did Mencken raise about the contemporary understanding of Abraham Lincoln?

10. In "Gore in the Caribees," what becames of the rebel leader, Jose Miguel Gomez?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What was Mencken's perspective on education? Is there a difference between education done in school, and education derived from "real life" so to speak? How does Mencken view his lack of a college education? What does Mencken see as the problem with modern school-based education?

Essay Topic 2

Mencken could be said to operate from an anti-war stance, as in "Star-Spangled Man."

A) How does Mencken make this bias clear? Cite examples from the text.

B) What is Mencken's opinion of World War I? How was the war started? Why might it have been prevented?

C) Is Mencken's anti-war bias explicit or implicit? Cite examples.

Essay Topic 3

Mencken often mentions the idea of an American aristocracy, as in "The National Letters." What could an American aristocracy accomplish, to Mencken's mind? How does Mencken's ideas for the aristocracy relate to his opinions about intellectuals versus common people? What kinds of government systems does he compare the aristocracy to?

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