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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. What term is used in semiotics and postmodern philosophy to describe a hypothetical inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from fantasy?

2. What word refers to that which is coming or resulting from a natural impulse or tendency, without effort or premeditation, natural and unconstrained?

3. When was the Ford Model T introduced?

4. Boorstin opens Chapter 3 - Section VI talking about the changes in our understanding of time and what?

5. Boorstin states that psychological analysis has effectively turned the actions of heroes into compensations for what?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Boorstin compare travel of the past with the present, in Chapter 3 - Section I?

2. What has psychological analysis done to the old heroic form, according to Boorstin?

3. How did the "Crime of the Century" affect Lindbergh's celebrity?

4. How do the personalities of celebrities evolve, according to Boorstin?

5. Who was Karl Baedeker? What did he pioneer?

6. What does Boorstin write all tourist attractions share, in Chapter 3 - Section IV? What effect does this have on travelers?

7. How did Conrad Hilton establish his hotel empire? Where was his first hotel built?

8. Who was Charles Lindbergh? What does Boorstin assert of him?

9. What example does Boorstin offer for "the leak" in Chapter 1 - Section IV?

10. What does Boorstin assert of travelers' dissociation since the advent of tourism?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Boorstin posits that there are two main "extravagant expectations" that Americans hold. What are these and what are examples of each?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss and describe the evolution of tourism in America. How did the car change travel? How did the airplane? What effect have these advances had, according to Boorstin?

Essay Topic 3

Describe and discuss the impact of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph McCarthy on the pseudo-event in American politics.

(see the answer keys)

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