The Watchtower publishing company and religion (in that order) is very typically American in the same way that the Mormons, Christian Science, and the WWCofG (Herbert W. and Garner Ted Armstrong's version) are American. They promote traditional American values and mores (mo-rays) unlike the Catholic, Orthodox, Episcopal and Presbyterian churches do (all European traditions).
It's amazing how far they have evolved from Russell's version of simple local Bible Study groups to a heirarchal catholic-style modern church led by a group of eight archbishops or demi-cardinals. How long will it be before they reinstitute the president of the governing body and set up a pope or "Archbishop of Canterbury" style leader? I think their American history and basic values prevents them from taking that last step - at least for the near future.
Just the idea of how they dress and their use of magazines and books to spread their word is very typically American. It's amazing that they haven't bought the rights to John T. Molloy's "Dress for Success." It was Molloy who pushed the idea that men dressed in a dark suit, white shirt, and conservative long tie could use their appearance to convince others of that they were more intelligent, held higher standards, and were more successful than the average citizen. Of course we know that all of those well-dressed bankers and stock manipulators that nearly destroyed our economy in 2008 had none of those attributes.
Even the Watchtower's resistance to beards, mustaches, and sideburns on male JWs equates to that same American philosophy that being "clean shaven" is somehow more pleasing to God and makes their message more acceptable to the masses. All it does around here is warn everyone that JWs are in the neighborhood.
Where I live in the Pacific Northwest where no one wears a suit and tie except for a few politicians (when the government is in session) and Jehovah's Witnesses. The other night I went into a "5 Guys" hamburger joint and there were about 40 men and boys of all ages from 9 to 79 who were there wearing black or gray pants, black shoes, white shirts and long ties. A few were wearing suit coats. I overheard several of the locals asking them what was going on. I couldn't hear very clearly, but it was obvious that they had been to a special training session of some sort. They might have been Mormons, but I think it was a local group of JW men going to some special training day. They just had that smell about them...
JV