To make the people of South Africa proud of their membership of the Great British Empire: Home Reading Unions in South Africa, 1900-1914

This article examines the regulation of reading by two home reading unions operating in South Africa from 1900 to 1914. It challenges the view that reading is primarily regulated to sustain and support a particular economic order. The emphasis falls on cultural, gender, and political factors that mediated imperial and colonial views of guided reading during a fluid period in South African history.