Is knowledge power? This work explores the history and contradictions in the notion that education and literacy are vital means for improving social and political status in the US. By closely examining the rapidly shifting social context of education and the emerging literature by and for African-American women during the 1890s, Anne-Elizabeth Murdy shows that the histories of education and literature are deeply connected and argues that their current lives must be regarded as mutually dependent. Teach the Nation offers an understanding of literacy and pedagogical study and identifies how...