Review of "The Abraham Lincoln Joke Book," by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers

 Review of

The Abraham Lincoln Joke Book, by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers

Five out of five stars

Lincoln’s personality through his jokes

I first read this book when I encountered it in the library at my elementary school. To a young boy, it was quite amusing, and it also taught me some history of the man consistently ranked as the greatest American president. Lincoln was a humble man that constantly expressed his opinion of himself as ungainly and homely in appearance. A great deal of his humor was self-deprecating in nature, something that only accented his fundamental strength.

 As I read the book decades later my thought was that you can learn a lot about a person from the jokes they tell. If the jokes have a bitter tone and primarily ridicule others, then that person is generally petty and weak. The jokes that Lincoln told about himself were a verbal demonstration of the strength that he exhibited when he, more than anyone else, preserved the union at great cost.