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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 cheeky nickname did Mencken give Theodore Dreiser?

2. What criticism did Mencken have for the effect of the Emancipation Proclamation?

3. What human flaw does democracy depend upon, according to Mencken?

4. Which is one of the stated reasons the editor put the volume together?

5. Why shouldn't men trust other men?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was the chief problem of a Baltimore summer, according to Mencken in "The Baltimore of the Eighties"?

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

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

4. Why was 1880s Baltimore such a loud town?

5. Why did Alistair Cooke feel that Mencken experienced a "downfall" in the 1930s?

6. What was Mencken's opinion of Ralph Waldo Emerson's "The American Scholar"?

7. What was Mencken's remedy for curing the ills of modern religions?

8. How did Mencken answer the question of whether successful men should have mistresses?

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

10. What was accomplished by Walt Whitman's "Democratic Vistas," according to Mencken?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Like any accomplished columnist, Mencken knew how to tell a good story, as in "The Noble Experiment" and "The Hills of Zion."

A) What agenda, if any, did Mencken have in sharing the stories of "The Noble Experiment"? Use examples from the text.

B) What agenda, if any, did Mencken have in sharing the story of "The Hills of Zion"? Use examples from the text.

Essay Topic 2

Abraham Lincoln was the subject of a long essay. Discuss the logic and structure of Mencken's argument in regards to Abraham Lincoln. What premise does Mencken assume? What is his thesis? What evidence does he use to support his thesis, and what logic does he employ?

Essay Topic 3

The nature of art, and especially of writing, is a subject that concerned Mencken.

A) What argument does Mencken make in "The Artist"? How is this argument related to Mencken's anti-war stance?

B) What argument does Mencken make in "The Author at Work"? How are we to reconcile his argument with the fact that, naturally, Mencken is himself a writer?

(see the answer keys)

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