Because in many ways the Mike Hammer books have become period pieces, they could be successfully discussed as both products of the immediate postwar years and early 1950s and as extensions of the hard-boiled detective traditions from the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s.

1. How does I, the Jury contrast with other hard-boiled detective novels such as say, Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon (1930) or Raymond Chandler's Farewell, My Lovely (1940)?

2. Compare and contrast Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer with Ross MacDonald's Lew Archer, both detectives from the same postwar period.

3. How does Spillane in this novel deal with gender issues which we now may find offensive but that can also be informative, helping us to learn about attitudes of the late 1940s and early 1950s?

4. If Mickey Spillane is the writer for the returning GI, what does his prose say about the attitudes and values of his audience?

5. What does...