The subject of this article is "The Royal Readers", a group of reading anthologies published in Britain by Thomas Nelson between 1872 and 1881 for use in elementary schools. The focus is not on their contribution to the teaching of reading but rather on how they functioned as the tools of an education system conceived primarily as an agent of socialisation. Using examples drawn directly from the texts, it is shown by what means the educators sought to transmit the ideology of imperialism and to define for working-class children--especially boys--a future role in Empire. The article concludes by speculating on the possible impact on pupils of the kind of reading experience offered by these materials.