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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. Rumors about the axis frequently dealt with what subject?

2. Copies of the New Testament were frequently altered in what way?

3. Which of the following does the author not list as a cause of the increasing lack of individuality with which solders were treated?

4. What belief about the Japanese caused Americans to think that their war with Japan would end quickly?

5. Allegedly, agents working for the axis spread what rumor?

Short Essay Questions

1. Once they were in the war, how did Americans believe they could win it?

2. What were talismans?

3. How and why did military and public authorities react to stereotyping of enemy forces?

4. According to the author, why does the human mind crave narrative order?

5. According to the author, how common are military blunders and what are their causes?

6. How did contemporaneous war histories depict military blunders?

7. How and when was alcohol used as an anodyne?

8. What beliefs did American have about the Japanese going into the war, and how did those beliefs change?

9. What problems did the doctrine of precision bombing face?

10. What did Americans expect their participation in WWII to be like?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The use of stereotypes to describe both allied and enemy soldiers was extremely common among American soldiers during World War II. Military leaders did little to dispel these beliefs.

1) Describe some of the stereotypes held by American troops regarding the soldiers of other nations during World War II.

2) Explain how these stereotypes emerged and spread.

3) Discuss the ways that stereotypes about other soldiers can be helpful or harmful. Discuss some harmful stereotypes in particular.

4) Explain why military leaders of the time were willing to tolerate stereotypes about enemy soldiers.

Essay Topic 2

Soldiers during the second World War had their self images systematically degraded and held in constant contempt.

1) Explain the concept of self-image and how it applies to the typical young American of the 1940s.

2) Discuss why it was necessary to destroy a soldier's self-image in order to cause that person to integrate well with the large machinery of the army of World War II.

3) Describe some of the effects that the aggressive campaign to destroy and degrade self-image had on common soldiers.

Essay Topic 3

Rumors emerged and spread rapidly through the ranks of the enlisted men during World War II, and were apparently believed by many soldiers - sometimes by soldiers on both sides of the war.

1) Explain why rumors were likely to emerge in the conditions that soldiers lived in. What did rumors provide for the soldiers?

2) Discuss some of the types of rumors believed by the soldiers.

3) Speculate as to why fanciful and easily disprovable ideas were continued to be embraced.

(see the answer keys)

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