Jingo (1997)
Jingo is a 1997 fiction book written by Terry Pratchett.
A worthless scrap of land surfaces overnight in the Circle Sea, and two nations promptly decide it is worth killing for. The island of Leshp sits exactly between Ankh-Morpork and the Klatchian city of Al-Khali, so both claim it, and the drums of a very stupid war begin to beat. Commander Sam Vimes of the City Watch has other ideas. To him war is only the largest available crime, which makes it his job to arrest the people starting it, including the loud patriots on his own side. Pratchett aims his satire straight at flags, borders, and the warm comfort of hating strangers.
Quick answers
What is Jingo about?
A worthless scrap of land surfaces overnight in the Circle Sea, and two nations promptly decide it is worth killing for. The island of Leshp sits exactly between Ankh-Morpork and the Klatchian city of Al-Khali, so both claim it, and the drums of a very stupid war begin to beat. Commander Sam Vimes of the City Watch has other ideas. To him war is only the largest available crime, which makes it his job to arrest the people starting it, including the loud patriots on his own side. Pratchett aims his satire straight at flags, borders, and the warm comfort of hating strangers.
When was Jingo published?
Jingo was published in 1997.
Who made Jingo?
Jingo was written by Terry Pratchett.
Similar books
Explore Jingo guides
Jingo in our writing
- Companion guide: Discworld: The Complete Guide to Terry Pratchett's Flat Planet
A few thoughts on Jingo
Vimes treats jingoism as a policing problem, which puts this beside Dr. Strangelove, where the men steering toward catastrophe stay perfectly, fatally reasonable. Blackadder Goes Forth finds the same black comedy in soldiers ordered to die for a few yards of mud. For the bureaucratic underbelly of borders and passports, Papers, Please turns Vimes-style moral fatigue into a small daily game.
Fiction that skewers nationalism and the drums of war
Jingo watches two cities talk themselves into fighting over a worthless scrap of land, with Vimes treating war itself as the biggest crime on offer. These share that same suspicion of flag-waving and easy hatred, whether it plays out as a border checkpoint deciding who counts as a threat, a city built on an idea of purity, or a town that turns on its neighbors.