I want to thank Vienne for bringing Alan Whitby’s three important works,
“Grave Matters” (about the Watchtower cemetery)
“The Ross Libel Trial: The history of a 1913 legal case” (includes transcripts)
and “The Hudson Davidson Debate (1896) (The first known debate involving a Watchtower representative.)”
All three titles are available on LULU.COM.
I am looking forward to enjoying my copies.
Top Jehovahs witnesses Historians
by Paul Bonanno 25 Replies latest jw friends
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Nathan Natas
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vienne
You're very welcome, Nat
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Rivergang
Back in the day, I found W.C. Stevenson's 1975 - Year of Doom? (later reprinted as The Inside Story of Jehovah's Witnesses) to be an informative read.
Admittedly, it came out at a time when there was very little else available about the JWs. However, it does describe in great detail how the congregations were organised before the elder arrangement was instituted. No other history of Jehovah's Witnesses (that I have ever read, anyway) does that to the same level of detail which Stevenson did.
Also, his writing style is impeccable - exactly what you would expect from somebody who majored in English at Oxford university. (And completely at variance with Schnell's ravings in his 30 Years a Watchtower Slave)!
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vienne
I'm puzzled by the obvious mental health issues behind the various down votes on this thread.
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slimboyfat
I wouldn’t worry about downvotes. Sometimes I even them on my posts, presumably because somebody tried to press the upvote and missed. Nobody’s perfect.
Rivergang, James Beckford’s Trumpet of Prophecy (1975) is from the same period as Stevenson’s book. (1967) I think it’s one of the best books on JWs ever. Alan Rogerson’s Millions Now Living Will Never Die (1969) is good too. A bit older still, but Herbert Stroup’s book The Jehovah’s Witnesses (1945) is good on JWs at that time and has some unique pieces of information as a result of the author’s engagement with JW congregations and headquarters.
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Gorb
Reading the post above, i'm just realising that all those good studies and books are about a different JW organization. The current jw.org is a social structure, without any deep knowledge. It became a franchise.
That's what I miss these days, a publication about how the organization rebranded itself into a light version and what the impact is on the life of it's members.
G.