An entangled history of ideas and ideals: feminism, social and educational reform in children's libraries in Belgium before the First World War

摘要

This article examines one of the first children's libraries in continental Europe, founded by Belgian feminists in Ghent around 1910. The transnational cultural transfer and transformation of the American children's-library paradigm is studied from the perspective of “entangled history”. The authors reveal a history entangled in transnational processes and partially overlapping intellectual networks of feminists, social and Lebens-reformers and progressive educationalists. It is contended that the American notion of children's libraries served the founders' feminist, educational, social and Lebens-reformist views. Discussion includes both national and transnational resonances, notably the interconnections with the Heures Joyeuses in Brussels and with similar Dutch initiatives.