I seldom post here, though I read the posts here daily. I spend most of my time just growing older. (I became a Witness in 1948, so you can guess my age.) I have an enduring interest in Witness history. I follow the two history blogs run by Schulz and de Vienne, the authors of the biography of Nelson Barbour. They endlessly impress me with their work.
Today on the public blog one of them posted a question concerning their next book. They are considering publishing volume one now. I’ve read almost all of this in rough draft as they post it on their private blog. It’s startlingly good. The research is the best I’ve ever seen and it is readable. In a quiet and scholarly way (they’re both teachers) the authors reveal parts of the Watchtower’s past I’d guess the Watchtower Society does not itself know and in detail. It’s not the expose some of us might want. It’s good, solid history.
It’s drawn from original sources including the private papers of the principals. I’ve noted in their footnotes private letters from J. C. Sunderlin, family papers from the von Zech family, Stetson's private letters and similar things. The chapter on Russell’s childhood and young adult years is the most complete I’ve ever seen, and it’s illustrated with photos of original documents. The photos they’ve uncovered are sometimes poor quality, but that they found them at all is amazing.
The problem is they’re considering shutting down their project. It’s not in anyone’s interest to have that happen. If you’re at all interested in a really good, solidly researched, professionally written history of the Watchtower, please go to their public blog and tell them so:
http://truthhistory.blogspot.com/
Their book considers the years from Russell’s childhood to about 1887. It documents the development of Zion’s Watch Tower readers into a separate religious identity. But, unlike Zygmunt and others, does so from a historian’s perspective, rather than from a sociologist’s view. A chapter on the early “study group” dissects their doctrinal development. The authors connect what Russell wrote about it to the books he read, the controversies of the day and tells the sources of their early beliefs. It was for me a myth-busting read.
There is a section on Russell’s business ventures. Interestingly, part of it is taken from the Ross libel trial. I’ve looked for decades for a fragment of that and never found it. They trash what some have written about Russell's businesses, noting in footnotes and text (with supporting documentation) what really happened.
They are occasionally snippy over what others have written. A recent book by Zydeck is trashed in some detail. Things Witness writers have said are found to be untrue. They smack some anti-Witness writers for bad research.
They take up the widely held belief that Russell was primarily influenced by Adventists. This turns out to be a distortion. In chapters two and three they take us back through the pages of The Restitution, the Bible Examiner and other papers and show us just who these people were and with whom they affiliated. They present things I’d never seen and I’ve researched this subject since the 1950s.
One thing that impresses me is their willingness to understand religious foible and to still present events bluntly. If the Watchtower Society had done this years ago, instead of foisting off propaganda as history, some of us would have a better view of them. I would at least.
I can’t praise them enough, as you can see. If you value this kind of research, go to their blog and tell them so. I do not want this project to die, and personally, I would like them to publish volume one as soon as possible. Will you help?