Dick, Archie L.2007-07-052007-07-052004-11Dick, AL 2004, 'Building a nation of readers?: Women's organizations and the politics of reading in South Africa, 1900-1914', Historia, vol. 49, no. 2, pp. 23-44. [http://www.journals.co.za/ej/ejour_hist.html]0018-229Xhttp://hdl.handle.net/2263/2899Women and women's organizations exploited available opportunities and spaces to assert themselves in South African public life in the early-twentieth century. Their educational interventions combined a special concern with nation-building and the kinds of history read by schoolchildren. This article examines the reading initiatives of a number of women's organizations in South Africa from 1900 to 1914. It reveals their political, educational, cultural, economic and personal entanglements, and their attempts to apply reading to nation-building. Their ambiguous legacy influenced the later expansion of reading and literacy schemes and the development of free public library services in South Africa.479019 bytesapplication/pdfenHistorical Association of South AfricaReading regulationImperialismNationalismReading unionsReading circlesReading -- South AfricaNation building -- South AfricaWomen -- Societies and clubs -- South AfricaLiteracy programmes -- South AfricaPublic libraries -- South AfricaSchool libraries -- South AfricaArticle