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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. The use of meaningless and tedious tasks as hazing would best be described as which of the following?

2. According to the author, most of the well-known novels about WWII are really about what?

3. How old were the youngest soldiers fielded by the axis during the war?

4. What was Ernie Pyle's profession?

5. How did most Americans regard Pearl Harbor?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did contemporaneous war histories depict military blunders?

2. What problems did American arms and armaments suffer from in the early parts of WWII?

3. Why have nearly all nations historically favored younger soldiers?

4. What writer is a notable exception to the normal treatment of enlisted men, and how did he differ?

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

6. What are recognition errors, and how are they caused?

7. What were talismans?

8. How was military jargon and vocabulary used to demean enlisted men?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The organization and doctrine behind America's army was woefully out of date when it entered World War II, and dramatic changes were necessary to prepare it to fight the axis war machine.

1) Describe America's army before its entrance into the war.

2) Explain the duties that the American army was prepared for and how it expected to fight and win battles.

3) Discuss the realities of the demands placed on the army during the second World War.

4) Explain how the US army adapted and rose to the challenge.

Essay Topic 2

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.

Essay Topic 3

For the first time during World War II, soldiers were treated as perfectly uniform and interchangeable parts. This treatment gradually crept into the minds of the men, further damaging their sense of self-worth.

1) Explain the concept of individuality and its importance and prevalence in a Democracy like America.

2) Discuss how and why soldiers were treated as being faceless and non-unique for the first time during World War II.

3) Describe the impact that this treatment had on American soldiers, and what problems it caused for them.

(see the answer keys)

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