Yellow Jingoism

Posted by ESC on February 23, 2002

In Reply to: Yellow Jingoism posted by Jenna on February 23, 2002

: My boss uses this term and I don't know what it means... can anyone help?

I've heard the phrase "yellow journalism" but not "yellow jingoism." From the archives:

JINGOISM - "Shrill, aggressive superpatriotism.chauvinism.(the term) came from the English parliamentary battle in 1876, with Gladstone on one side facing Queen Victoria and Disraeli on the other. The issue was intervention in Turkey over alleged persecution of Christians there. Gladstone held that Britain should support the Christian minorities against the Turks, threatening to bundle the Turks out of Europe 'bag and baggage.' Disraeli and the Queen felt it was all a plot by the Russians to expand at the expense of Turkey. When Disraeli threatened the Russians with war if they did not halt the flow of 'volunteers' into Turkey, this refrain was heard in the music halls of London:

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!

'Jingoism' quickly became a synonym for bellicose remarks and national cockiness. Disraeli was initially forced into neutrality but when Russian invaded Turkey in 1878, he sent in the British fleet and helped arrange what he called a peace with honor." From Safire's New Political Dictionary by William Safire (Random House, New York, 1993).