The June, 2011 issue of the Journal of Religious History (religious history a sociological perspective) contains an article that some might find interesting (and perhaps a little naive) on JWs and their history. For what it's worth I DLed it from a university webpage that pays to subscribe to the journal and then tried posting it on zhare, but didn't take. Anyone got another free, no-need-to-join host that I can post it on so all can DL it? It's in pdf format.
Zoe Knox's article
by aristeas 9 Replies latest jw friends
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Marvin Shilmer
aristeas,
Why not just get permission first?
Marvin Shilmer
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Nathan Natas
I just sent Dr. Zoe Knox an email requesting her permission for us to reproduce and review her article and also inviting her to join our discussion group.
We'll see what happens... (fingers crossed)
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Nathan Natas
Here's the abstract (description) of her article.
From their humble origins as small, loose-knit groups of Bible students in Pennsylvania in the 1870s, Charles Taze Russell and his followers laid the foundations of a highly visible, and frequently controversial, worldwide religious organisation known since 1931 as the Jehovah's Witnesses. Despite the Witnesses' broad historical role in defining and shaping understandings of religious tolerance, freedom of conscience, and civil liberties around the world, historians have paid very little attention to the Witnesses, with the notable exception of their treatment in Nazi Germany and the United States and Canada in wartime. The paucity of historical knowledge is all the more surprising given their visibility and notoriety. This article aims to initiate discussion of this under-researched history by addressing what has been written, by whom, and for what purpose. It represents the first effort to evaluate the English-language historical literature on the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society.
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VM44
'Writing Witness History: The Historiography of the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania', Journal of Religious History 35, no. 2, (2011), pp. 157-180.
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aristeas
Email already sent, BUT THAT DOESN'T HELP ME WITH A FREE HOST, even if she says OK! I don't know why the attempted UL at zshare didn't work. I've used it before. Somebody will still need to steer me to another host, one that accepts pdfs.
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VM44
sendspace.com might be a possibility.
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Nathan Natas
I got a reply from Dr. Knox! Unfortunately, under the terms of her agreement with her publisher, she can't opt to give away a copy of her own work.
I shall follow-up with a letter to her publisher.
In the meantime, here's her reply, with just a couple of redactions to protect the guilty:
Dear Mr [Natas],
Thank you for your email about my recent article in the Journal of Religious History. I am of course aware of the discussion group Jehovahs-Witnesses.net and of the vigorous debate on a wide range of topics which the forum facilitates.
I have received several requests regarding posting the article online by the members and moderators of a number of online communities. I have read carefully the terms and conditions issued to me by Wiley-Blackwell, the publishers of the Journal of Religious History. Unfortunately, the publishers have advised that I am not permitted to give consent to third parties to post the article online.
If you wish to pursue this further on behalf of the members of Jehovahs-Witnesses.net it would be best to contact the publishers directly. The Wiley-Blackwell Rights Department can be contacted at [redacted by NN]@[redacted by NN].com . The full bibliographic details should be cited in the request, as follows: Zoe Knox, 'Writing Witness History: The Historiography of the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania', Journal of Religious History 35, no. 2, (2011), pp. 157-180. If the publishers decline your request to post the article to Jehovahs-Witnesses.net perhaps the forum's members will be able to access it elsewhere. The Journal of Religious History is a well known periodical with a wide circulation. Many libraries around the world subscribe to it either in hard copy or through online journal databases.
Thank you once again for your interest in my research. Please accept my apologies that I am not in a position to grant the permission you have requested.
Kind regards,
Zoe Knox
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Dr Zoe Knox
Lecturer in Modern Russian History
School of Historical Studies
The University of Leicester
University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH
UNITED KINGDOM -
Nathan Natas
Well, I'm done. The people who publish The Journal of Religious History will not grant permission for the article to be reproduced here.
Sorry.
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talesin
I did a little research the other day on where the grant funding for this paper came from.
The Nuffield Foundation
The Nuffield Foundation's Social Science Small Grants Scheme
http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/
this may be helpful ... or not ...
t