Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age

A Brief History of AA
Author: Bill W

This is a great biography about how  A.A. started, how the Steps and Traditions evolved, and how the A.A. Fellowship grew and spread overseas.

A.A. co-founder Bill W. tells the story of the growth of Alcoholics Anonymous from its make-or-break beginnings in New York and Akron in the early 1930s to its spread across the country and overseas in the years that followed.   A wealth of personal accounts and anecdotes portray the dramatic power of the A.A. Twelve Step program of recovery – unique not only in its approach to treating alcoholism but also in its spiritual impact and social influence.

Bill recounts the evolution of the Twelve Steps, the Twelve Traditions and the Twelve Concepts for World Service – those principles and practices that protect A.A.s Three Legacies of Recovery, Unity and Service – and how in 1955 the responsibility for these were passed on by the founding members to the Fellowship (A.A.’s membership at large).   In closing chapters of Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, early “friends of A.A.,” including the influential Dr. Silkworth and Father Ed Dowling, share their perspectives.