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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. Why is Julian Maclaren-Ross discussed in the book?

2. Throughout Chapter 6, the author describes enlisted men as being which of the following?

3. What is unusual about the friendly-fire incident discussed in Chapter 2 and illustrated on page 18?

4. Even with advanced bombsights, bombs would routinely land how far away from their targets?

5. Compared with the enlisted men, officers would best be described as which of the following?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What sort of information is regularly denied to the common soldier?

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

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

5. What qualities epitomized the American forces prior to their entry into WWII?

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

7. Why did many soldiers require an anodyne?

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

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

10. What types of hazing were most common?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

The organization and doctrine behind America's army was woefully out of date when it entered World War II, and dramatic changes were necessary to prepare it to fight the axis war machine.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 3

During the war, advertisers took advantage of the prevailing patriotic spirit to help sell their products.

1) Discuss how and why advertisers were able to take advantage of the war.

2) Explain why consumers were particularly susceptible to encouragements to support the war effort. What did the "one voice" movement have to do with this phenomenon?

3) Assess how acceptable the practices that advertisers used during this time were. Did these campaigns constitute war profiteering, or were they valid business models? Use information from the book to support your opinion.

(see the answer keys)

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