24-28 Summary and Analysis

The Anglo-Saxon:

Mencken tries to trace the broad lineage of the Anglo-Saxon, but in the end gives up, and states that whoever claims to be an Anglo-Saxon indeed is one. He is one himself, and the Anglo-Saxon is not so much differentiated by blood, but by certain qualities. The Anglo-Saxon is cowardly and bombastic. He has failed in many areas of the arts and industry, and wherever he does rule - say, the South - that region is culturally inferior, engendering such things as the Ku Klux Klan, and Fundamentalism.

For proof of Anglo-Saxon cowardice, Mencken goes no further than the expansion of the American empire and the "cowardly" slaughter of Indians. Similarly, the British exploited and conquered "savages" for their empires without much of a fight. Anglo-Saxons always have mercenaries do the real fighting for them, and they never go...