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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. Mencken has what criticism for "new poets"?

2. Who wrote Sextet for Strings, Opus 18, which Mencken greatly praises?

3. What American book does Mencken call one of history's great masterpieces?

4. Who does Mencken label "blatant and obnoxious posturers and wind-bags"?

5. In the boxing match Mencken reports on in Chapter 23, why do most want the favorite boxer to lose?

Short Essay Questions

1. Summarize Mencken's views on Mark Twain.

2. What is Mencken's own philosophy of psychology? What does he feel forms the basis of human psychology?

3. Summarize Mencken's views on William Dean Howells.

4. Describe the following under the category of what Mencken calls "'The Lesser Arts": a) oil painting, b) drama.

5. Summarize Mencken's account of the Scopes Monkey Trial and his impression of the town of Dayton, Tennessee.

6. What is Mencken's opinion of the teaching profession? How does he compare and contrast teaching styles of his schoolboy days to today?

7. What is Mencken's belief about American millionaires?

8. What does Mencken believe about contemporary new inventions? Mention the telephone as well as the thermostat in your response.

9. What opinion does Mencken render about the Black Plague that decimated Europe in the Middle Ages?

10. Why does Mencken criticize the American Medical Association? What is his opinion of doctors as a professional class?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Summarize Mencken's views on government, especially the democratic form of government. Include:

a) The average man's conception of government

b) The history and evolution of democracy as Mencken sees it

c) Why democracy is inherently flawed

d) The effects of democracy -- what it harms, what kind of people it produces

e) Mencken's prescription for an ideal form of government/leadership for the United States

Essay Topic 2

Describe in-depth Mencken's views of the following people:

1) William Jennings Bryan

2) Woodrow Wilson

3) Warren G. Harding

4) Thorstein Veblen

5) Calvin Coolidge

6) Oliver Wendell Holmes

Essay Topic 3

Choose five of the types of people Mencken discusses in Chapter 2 and discuss:

a) The manner in which Mencken describes them

b) What Mencken believes motivates each type of people

c) What the defining characteristics of each type of people are

(see the answer keys)

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