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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the chief problem with political theorists?
(a) They are too antagonistic to the current political system.
(b) They have little sense of history.
(c) They hate politics in general.
(d) They attempt to dignify the political order of their day.

2. Who derives several advantages from marriage?
(a) Men and women equally.
(b) Men only.
(c) Only the state.
(d) Women only.

3. What does the "believer" type of person inevitably do?
(a) Betrays friends as well as lovers.
(b) Thinks they are better than everyone.
(c) Annoys the company he or she is with.
(d) Maintains a faith in the improbable.

4. Who does Mencken dub "The Lady of Joy"?
(a) The happily married woman.
(b) His wife.
(c) The Virgin Mary.
(d) A prostitute.

5. How does Mencken describe Oliver Wendell Holmes?
(a) He was a tool of liberal elites.
(b) He was a brilliant reasoner.
(c) He was a completely inept United States Senator.
(d) He was a tool of conservative fuddy-duddies.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the relationship between Anglo-Saxons and civilization?

2. Which is NOT one of the features Mencken imagines for the Confederacy, had it survived the Civil War?

3. Privately, politicians are what kind of people?

4. What aspect of Lincoln's historical persona does Mencken doubt, or at least question?

5. Per Chapter 2, what kind of person has Mencken never met?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Chapter 1, how does Mencken's view of humanity coincide with that of the modern scientist?

2. Describe Mencken's contention that democracy is a "self-limiting disease." What does he mean by that? Is there any good aspects to democracy?

3. What is Mencken's opinion of government? What is the role of government? Is one system of government preferable to another?

4. What is Mencken's opinion of the contemporary American South? What are its features? What rules the South?

5. Summarize Mencken's appraisal of William Jennings Bryan. How is Mencken's opinion related to the Scopes Monkey Trial?

6. Describe Mencken's opinion of George Washington. Why does Mencken admire him? Why doesn't Mencken believe Washington would do well in a contemporary political climate?

7. Discuss Mencken's history of democracy. Before it arrived, what did people think of democracy? How was it conceived? How did it evolve?

8. What is democracy's fundamental flaw? What aspect of human nature motivates democracy?

9. What is the origin of morality according to Mencken?

10. What does Mencken have to say about politicians? What kind of people are they? How do they operate?

(see the answer keys)

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