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Quiz about Outstanding NonFiction Books 2
Quiz about Outstanding NonFiction Books 2

Outstanding Non-Fiction Books 2 Quiz


So many were so kind on the first effort, so here are ten more books to contemplate.

A multiple-choice quiz by Rehaberpro. Estimated time: 5 mins.
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Author
Rehaberpro
Time
5 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
372,603
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Easy
Avg Score
8 / 10
Plays
754
Awards
Top 35% Quiz
- -
Question 1 of 10
1. He was born Malcolm Little; after converting to Islam he changed his name to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz but was widely known as Malcolm X. His life is summed up in his only published work "The Autobiography of Malcolm X". How did he meet a sudden end to his leadership and life? Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli was a true polymath from the Renaissance era who was at times an historian, politician, diplomat, philosopher,and humanist. His book on the qualities of leadership still is cited today as a guidebook, particularly for politicians. What is the English name for his work? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. True story: At our Monday morning staff meeting, an administrative aide to the Director concluded the meeting by relaying a message from the Director that there needed to be improvement in the quality of written communications. He passed out with no comment a slim volume written by William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White. What was this book? Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. What was the "Electric Kool Aid Acid Test"? Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. From his background of selling correspondence courses, bacon, soap, and lard, Dale Carnegie in 1936 wrote perhaps the most famous self-help book. What was the title? Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. In 1968 zoologist and ethologist Desmond Morris published a book that changed the way man looks at himself. The name was "The Naked Ape" and it was purchased by twelve million book customers. Why was it controversial? Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. It is one thing to have a theory and prove it by laboratory experimentation. It is something else to risk life and limb. Thor Heyerdahl's theory was that the Polynesian islanders came from South America, a theory not popular in academic circles. Heyerdahl then tried to make the trip that might have been made in pre-Columbian times. What was the name of the raft and the name of his book on his findings? Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. Dee Brown, a librarian by profession, wrote a history of the native American tribes and their interaction with western civilization. The book was written from a native American perspective and had perhaps some bias but it was based on in-depth research; it was hailed in 1970 as a unique and important book. What was the title of Brown's book? Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. "Unsafe at Any Speed" (1965) took on perhaps the most powerful business conglomerate in the world on the safety of its products. Next to a home, the automobile is the second largest debt a typical family incurs. We have a right to safe reliable transportation but auto manufactures have been slow to add safety measures, such as seat belts. Gear shifts were poorly placed so that accidental shifting to an unsafe gear was problematical. Nearly all accidents were attributed to driver error rather than engineering, where the reverse might be true. The author concluded that 320 million federal dollars were allocated to highway beautification in 1965, but just $500,000 was dedicated to highway safety. Who was the firebrand (and later presidential candidate) that challenged both the industry and government on auto safety?

Answer: (Green Party Candidate first and last name, or last name only)
Question 10 of 10
10. Henry David Thoreau built a cabin on Walden Pond, he said to simplify his life. As a member of the transcendental movement, he wanted to test himself and demonstrate to others how this could be done. The book was titled "Walden; or, Life in the Woods" (1854). Who was the fellow transcendentalist, poet, and essayist who owned the land and Walden Pond? Hint



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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. He was born Malcolm Little; after converting to Islam he changed his name to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz but was widely known as Malcolm X. His life is summed up in his only published work "The Autobiography of Malcolm X". How did he meet a sudden end to his leadership and life?

Answer: Assassination

Malcolm Little, after enduring a series of foster homes, was sentenced to prison for larceny and burglary. While there he converted to Islam and joined the Nation of Islam. He quickly rose to a leadership position, but by 1964 became disillusioned with the Nation of Islam by the corruption that he saw and by the travels he made to Africa and the mid-East.

His second conversion was to Sunni Islam that resulted in death threats from the Nation of Islam. On February 21, 1965, while giving a speech in New York City, three men rose from the audience and shot him twenty one times.
2. Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli was a true polymath from the Renaissance era who was at times an historian, politician, diplomat, philosopher,and humanist. His book on the qualities of leadership still is cited today as a guidebook, particularly for politicians. What is the English name for his work?

Answer: The Prince

Machiavellian is a term used today to describe someone who is deceitful, devious, ambitious, and brutal. Here are a couple of examples.

"He who neglects what is done for what ought to be done, sooner effects his ruin than his preservation"

"The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present."

And on winning a war, his advice is that when another country is seduced, ruin them, as Rome destroyed Carthage, colonize them, and let them keep their own orders but install a puppet regime.

There is something of a modern take on "The Prince" by scholars. Machiavelli wrote the book just after being dismissed from a political appointment. He was also a popular writer of comedies. "The Prince" may have been a satire and a contrast piece to Plato's philosopher king.
3. True story: At our Monday morning staff meeting, an administrative aide to the Director concluded the meeting by relaying a message from the Director that there needed to be improvement in the quality of written communications. He passed out with no comment a slim volume written by William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White. What was this book?

Answer: The Elements of Style

Strunk first published "Elements of Style" at his own expense in 1918. After Strunk died in 1949, a pupil of his, E.B. White, revised and up-dated it in 1959. With occasional revisions, it is the classic book on writing with a world-wide distribution of ten million copies. "Time" Magazine named in 2011 as one of the most influential books written in English. Brevity is the key as most editions are less than forty pages.

Some of us felt as if we were back in English 101. We also concluded that those who need it would probably not read or digest it.
4. What was the "Electric Kool Aid Acid Test"?

Answer: A 1968 book by Tom Wolfe

Tom Wolfe followed the adventures of Ken Kesey and his band of Merry Pranksters as they travelled the country in a psychedelic painted bus named "Further". They made use of LSD by spiking Kool Aid. This made it a 'group' trip rather than a single adventure. On the road they meet the rich, the famous, the outlaws, the poets, and the music of the time.

The style that Wolfe chose, sometimes referred to as 'new journalism', is somewhat parallel to what Truman Capote did with "In Cold Blood" in that he related actual events that read like fiction.

Ken Kesey emerges from the book as a drug-addled hippie. However, Kesey had published respected novels including "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' (1962) and "Sometimes a Great Notion" (1964).
5. From his background of selling correspondence courses, bacon, soap, and lard, Dale Carnegie in 1936 wrote perhaps the most famous self-help book. What was the title?

Answer: How to Win Friends and Influence People

The publication of "How to Win Friends and Influence People" met instant success with 17 re-printings. It sold five million copies and was translated into 31 languages. Equally successful has been the "Dale Carnegie Course" which attracted nearly half a million graduates. The course was formulated and taught before the book.

Dale changed the spelling of his name from "Carnagey" to Carnegie, so as to associate with the industrialist Andrew Carnegie, to whom he was not related. In 1916, Dale was able to rent Carnegie Hall itself for a lecture to a packed house using his name as collateral.

There are a lot of options in taking the course. Typically, an eight session seminar will cost about 2,000 dollars. Graduates of the course include Orville Redenbacher, Warren Buffett, and John Boehner.
6. In 1968 zoologist and ethologist Desmond Morris published a book that changed the way man looks at himself. The name was "The Naked Ape" and it was purchased by twelve million book customers. Why was it controversial?

Answer: Compared man to animals in a scientific context

The book's focus was the consequences of the transformation from forest-dwelling, mainly vegetarian, creatures to carnivorous hunter-gatherers. However, many were critical of the sexual overtones. The title comes from the fact that of one hundred and ninety three known primates, man is the only one not covered completely by hair.

One reviewer said: "Morris examines sex, child-rearing, exploratory habits, fighting,(and) feeding... to establish our surprising bonds to the animal kingdom".
7. It is one thing to have a theory and prove it by laboratory experimentation. It is something else to risk life and limb. Thor Heyerdahl's theory was that the Polynesian islanders came from South America, a theory not popular in academic circles. Heyerdahl then tried to make the trip that might have been made in pre-Columbian times. What was the name of the raft and the name of his book on his findings?

Answer: Kon Tiki

Heyerdahl constructed the Kon Tiki as close as he could to what Peruvian natives might have used to make such a voyage. Logs of balsa trees were used as flotation devices. However, there were compromises between old and modern times. A radio was included for safety reasons, for instance.

On April 28, 1947 the Kon Tiki sailed on its mission. It had to be towed the first fifty miles so as not to engage any other sea craft. On August 7, 1947 the Kon Tiki hit a reef near the island of Raroia and the voyage was concluded. The Kon Tiki had weathered 101 days and covered 3700 nautical miles. So the possibility of such a trip was proven, however, not enough for anthropologists to accept as a scientific proof. But in 2011 Professor Erik Thorsby of the University of Oslo found a distinctive DNA evidence of smaller genetic contribution from South American natives in Polynesians.

In 2012 a dramatized reenactment was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The original Kon Tiki is on display at a museum near Oslo.
8. Dee Brown, a librarian by profession, wrote a history of the native American tribes and their interaction with western civilization. The book was written from a native American perspective and had perhaps some bias but it was based on in-depth research; it was hailed in 1970 as a unique and important book. What was the title of Brown's book?

Answer: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

The title was taken from a Stephen Vincent Benet poem that reads:

"I shall not be there
I shall rise and pass
Bury my heart at Wounded Knee."

Brown outlines multiple series of injustices and betrayals. Brown chronicles the displacement through forced relocations, and warfare waged by the United States government against native Americans. The Bureau of Indian Affairs is portrayed as a continuing effort to destroy the culture, religion, and way of life of Native American peoples. For instance, children were routinely taken from their families and forced to attend government boarding schools.

The massacre at Wounded Knee is a sad incident in United States history. The US 7th Calvary came upon a group of Indians that were believed to be hostile. The soldiers were ordered to disarm the tribe until things could be sorted out. One Indian, believed to have been deaf, refused to surrender his rifle. Things escalated. By the end 300 Indians had been massacred at Wounded Knee Creek, including men, women, and children. Thirty soldiers met their death as well. Some of the soldiers were awarded medals for their actions but these were later rescinded.
9. "Unsafe at Any Speed" (1965) took on perhaps the most powerful business conglomerate in the world on the safety of its products. Next to a home, the automobile is the second largest debt a typical family incurs. We have a right to safe reliable transportation but auto manufactures have been slow to add safety measures, such as seat belts. Gear shifts were poorly placed so that accidental shifting to an unsafe gear was problematical. Nearly all accidents were attributed to driver error rather than engineering, where the reverse might be true. The author concluded that 320 million federal dollars were allocated to highway beautification in 1965, but just $500,000 was dedicated to highway safety. Who was the firebrand (and later presidential candidate) that challenged both the industry and government on auto safety?

Answer: Ralph Nader

Nader, after getting his law degree from Harvard University, became a political aide to the Assistant Secretary of Labor Daniel Patrick Moynihan and there was assigned to develop ideas on auto safety. It has been fifty years since publication of the book and the differences between the 1965 car and the 2015 are remarkable.

When I used to be pleased when my Chevy Bell Aire got 20mpg, now I expect my Prius to get 50mpg plus. I have seat belts, air bags, and the list goes on. Millions of people all over the world are safer and we need to thank Ralph Nader for his leadership in getting the ball rolling.
10. Henry David Thoreau built a cabin on Walden Pond, he said to simplify his life. As a member of the transcendental movement, he wanted to test himself and demonstrate to others how this could be done. The book was titled "Walden; or, Life in the Woods" (1854). Who was the fellow transcendentalist, poet, and essayist who owned the land and Walden Pond?

Answer: Ralph Waldo Emerson

Although Thoreau published many essays and books during his life, he is most remembered for two--"Walden Pond"(1854) and "Civil Disobedience"(1849). One legend places Thoreau in jail for protesting the Mexican War. When his friend Emerson visits him he asks why he is there. Thoreau respond by saying "Why are you not in here?"

Passive resistance as expounded in "Civil Disobedience" was a technique used in modern times by both Gandhi and Martin Luther King. It was used during the era of Vietnam protests, the fight for civil rights, and peaceful sit-ins.
Source: Author Rehaberpro

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