patriotism

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n

Definition: nationalism
Antonyms: treachery

in the most elementary sense of the term (the word derives from the Latin patria or “fatherland”), suggests the loyalty that all citizens owe to their country or nation. With varying degrees of intensity, nearly all Americans claim to be patriotic citizens of the republic. But the term also has a narrower, more specific history, with sharper political implications. In the two centuries since the Revolutionary War, patriotism has tended to shift from a left‐wing to a right‐wing cause.

The term first achieved prominence in Anglo‐American politics during the second quarter of the eighteenth century. The British ministry of Sir Robert Walpole, which admitted only Whigs to office and castigated all Tories as disloyal to the Hanoverian dynasty, alienated a number of prominent Whigs, who took the name “Patriots” to distinguish themselves from the Tory opposition. But some prominent Tories, such as Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke, saw an opportunity to create a combined Tory and Whig opposition strong enough to topple Walpole, and also appropriated the label “Patriot” for that goal. By 1750, even Frederick, Prince of Wales, claimed to be a patriot prince, an ambition he bequeathed to his son, who inherited the throne as George III in 1760. To everyone invoking a patriot identity, the label implied placing loyalty to one's country ahead of personal interest or factional causes.

North American spokesmen jubilantly hailed the accession of George III as a “Patriot King,” only to find that his ministers threatened their liberties through direct parliamentary taxation of the colonies. As the resistance movement gained coherence and grew more militant, its members called themselves “Sons of Liberty,” “Whigs,” and “Patriots.” Their enemies were “Tories,” who preferred the softer name of “Loyalists.” The launching of American independence identified American patriots as republicans and enemies of monarchy, a radical position in the eighteenth century that would become associated with “left” politics during the French Revolution a few years later. That association persisted into the early national period. Democratic‐Republicans called their opponents “Tories” and “monocrats” (champions of monarchy), not “Federalists.” By 1800, the Federalists seemed to oblige them by increasingly refusing to celebrate the Fourth of July (they preferred Washington's Birthday as their national festival) and above all by refusing to read the Declaration of Independence in public lest it offend Great Britain. Well into the nineteenth century, the term patriot retained these radical associations.

The veterans' movements that followed the Civil War probably marked a shift toward a more conservative definition of patriot. In the former Confederate states, secret paramilitary societies such as the Ku Klux Klan drew heavily on Confederate veterans and their younger kin to undermine Radical Reconstruction through terrorist acts. They saw themselves as patriots committed to “redeeming” the South for white supremacy from “black Republican” rule. The Union counterpart was much less militant, but over time the veterans' group known as the Grand Army of the Republic grew less eager to celebrate emancipation and more inclined to glory in the triumph of the Union, while agitating for bonuses and other veterans' benefits.

That trend has continued in the twentieth century. Veterans' organizations, such as the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars, have at times almost claimed a monopoly on American patriotism and have often questioned the loyalty of citizens who disagreed with their objectives. The word patriot was becoming strongly associated with the Right in politics, partly because the Left often advocated such internationalist causes as the republican side in the Spanish Civil War and decolonization movements after World War II, both of which also had strong Communist support.

The Vietnam War sealed these identities. The Left opposed the war and tried to end it; the Right denounced such efforts as disloyal and appropriated all the symbols of American patriotism. By the 1972 presidential election, President Richard M. Nixon, who had served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, but without seeing combat, successfully invoked his own patriotism while overwhelming his Democrat opponent, George McGovern, who had survived twenty‐five missions as a bomber pilot in the European theater of World War II but never used his Army Air Force record to win votes in the campaign.

The label “Patriot,” at least in its partisan sense, is recently shifting even further to the right. It has been actively appropriated by paramilitary militia movements around the country, which now seem to equate “Patriot” with white supremacy and a fierce hatred for most actions of the federal government. The ability to capture the label remains an important touchstone in American public life.

[See also Commemoration and Public Ritual; Culture, War, and the Military; Militarism and Antimilitarism; Nationalism; Public Opinion, War, and the Military; Religion and War.]

Bibliography

• Pauline Maier, From Resistance to Revolution: Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition to Britain, 1765–1776, 1972.
• George C. Rable, But There Was No Peace: The Role of Violence in the Politics of Reconstruction, 1984.
• William Pencak, For God & Country: The American Legion, 1919–1941, 1989.
• Christine Gerrard, The Patriot Opposition to Walpole: Politics, Poetry, and National Myth, 1725–1742, 1994.
• Richard Abanes, American Militias: Rebellion, Racism & Religion, 1996.
• Simon P. Newman, Parades and the Politics of the Street: Festive Culture in the Early American Republic, 1997

Patriotism has always been defined as love of one's country or zeal in the defence of the interests of one's country. Patriotism as such does not necessitate a programme of action; it stimulates and informs nationalism, but is not always nationalistic. In the eighteenth century reference to it was often ironic, as when Dr Johnson defined a patriot as ‘a factious disturber of the government’. He also said that ‘Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel’, referring particularly to the demagogue John Wilkes. Such ironic reservations about the virtue of patriotism are a frequent theme of much modern commentary, often prompting the bitter reflection by self-ascribed patriots that, ‘Patriotism has become a dirty word’.

— Lincoln Allison

A cynical view of the world by Ambrose Bierce

n.

Combustible rubbish read to the torch of any one ambitious to illuminate his name.

In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first.

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Quotes:

"A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government." - Edward Abbey

"What pity is it That we can die, but once to serve our country." - Joseph Addison

"It is the patriotic duty of every man to lie for his country." - Alfred Adler

"Love of country is like love of woman -- he loves her best who seeks to bestow on her the highest good." - Felix Adler

"Yippies, Hippies, Yahoos, Black Panthers, lions and tigers alike -- I would swap the whole damn zoo for the kind of young Americans I saw in Vietnam." - Spiro T. Agnew

"True patriots we; for be it understood we left our country for our country's good." - George Barrington

See more famous quotes about Patriotism

For a list of words related to patriotism, see:

• Philosophies, Principles, and Parties - patriotism: love for one’s country and loyalty to its government
• World Relations and Conditions - patriotism: love for or devotion to one’s country

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This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - patriotisme

Nederlands (Dutch)
vaderlandsliefde

Français (French)
n. - patriotisme

Deutsch (German)
n. - Patriotismus, vaterländische Gesinnung

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - πατριωτισμός, φιλοπατρία

Italiano (Italian)
patriottismo

Português (Portuguese)
n. - patriotismo (m)

Русский (Russian)
патриотизм

Español (Spanish)
n. - patriotismo

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - fosterlandskärlek

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
爱国心, 爱国精神

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 愛國心, 愛國精神

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 애국심

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 愛国心

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) وطنيه, حب للوطن‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮אהבת המולדת, פטריוטיות‬

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