JINGOISM

The word jingoism, signifying the assertive expression of nationalist feelings, comes from a London music hall song of 1877. The occasion was the Russo-Turkish War that had broken out in April and which, if the Russians were victorious, seemed to threaten British interests in the region. The song's chorus went: "We don't want to fight, / But by Jingo if we do / We've got the ships, we've got the men, we've got the money too. / We won't let the Russians get to Constantinople." In late 1877 and early 1878, there was a strong movement with many public meetings in Britain against involvement in the war, but at the end of January these meetings began to be broken up by supporters of a more assertive policy. The peace party was thoroughly alarmed at the violence and the apparent turn of public opinion, and one of them, aware of the popularity of the song, labeled their opponents "Jingoes." The term took hold, and soon extended to jingoism to describe the kind of policy associated with the Conservative government under Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881), first on the Eastern Question, and then in its involvement in Afghanistan and South Africa.

Although some so-called Jingoes were happy to accept the label, the term throughout the period up to 1914 was mainly used by their opponents who, in an age of widening democracy, were alarmed at the attraction of so many potential voters to what seemed to them to be irrational and dangerous policies. In The Psychology of Jingoism (1901), published in the midst of the South African, or Boer, War (1899–1902) when peace meetings were again broken up, the Liberal publicist J. A. Hobson explained jingoism as a coming together of the survival of brutality and credulity from "savage nature" and certain conditions of modern civilization, especially the power of the media and the rootlessness of town life.

It is difficult to be certain of the appeal of jingoism, particularly as it carried no obviously definable meaning. Over time jingoism ceased to be associated exclusively with those who broke up public meetings and came to signify anyone who supported a patriotic policy. Within Britain, jingoism was particularly associated with London, though it was by no means confined to it. Contemporary critics argued that Jingoes were to be found in all classes, but gave special prominence to the presence in Jingo crowds of medical students, members of the stock exchange, and workers spilling out of pubs and music halls. Modern historians have argued that jingoism's appeal was primarily to the lower middle classes, particularly clerks, who overcame status anxieties by affirming their loyalty to nation.

Jingoism needs to be seen as the British expression of an assertive nationalism to be found all over Europe. In France, similar types of action and thought were known as chauvinism. Although by 1914 militarism had partially replaced jingoism as the word peace-loving liberals and socialists were most likely to use to describe their opponents, it was still useful in stirring up fears of the threat posed by right-wing nationalism to the prospects for both peace and democracy.

See alsoBoer War; Disraeli, Benjamin; Eastern Question; Nationalism; Russo-Turkish War.

bibliography

Cunningham, Hugh. "Jingoism in 1877–78." Victorian Studies 14 (1971): 429–453.

Price, Richard. An Imperial War and the British Working Class: Attitudes and Reactions to the Boer War, 1899–1902. London, 1972.

Taylor, Miles. "Patriotism, History, and the Left in Twentieth-Century Britain." Historical Journal 33 (1990): 971–987.

Ward, Paul. Red Flag and Union Jack: Englishness, Patriotism and the British Left, 1881–1924. Woodbridge, U.K., 1998.

Hugh Cunningham