AA History
 

I have been a big fan of AA history. I think there is a lot to be learned from our collective past. Some of it is inspiring and some of it's tragic but most of it is fascinating in some respect. I thought I would start a thread where folks might share some of the things that they are most impressed with in regard to AA history as well as a place to share their thoughts (if you're so inclined). I'm hoping that perhaps we can learn something from each other.

So, the question is... what's the thing in AA's history which you find most interesting, a thing you don't understand, or the thing that had the most influence on you personally?

what had the most influence on me by far is this sentence in the foreword to the first edition (reprinted in all subsequent ones): "To show other alcoholics precisely how we have recovered is the main purpose of this book".

i see this as part of AA history, and ongoing. there was clarity on that when the BB was written.

I found the life of Bill Wilson to be the most interesting aspect of AA history.

Being a lesbian, I found the history of gay AA in the US to be fascinating............

(o:

For me, one of the most interesting things was to study Bill's personal copy of the "original manuscript" of the big book. Photographs of that complete manuscript were published a few years ago in "The Book That Started It All". Bill sent copies of that original draft of the big book, (via manuscript) to a couple hundred people asking for their feedback. He then made notations based on this feedback in his personal copy of the manuscript. His personal copy contains many hand written notes and corrections, many of which are not in Bill's handwriting.

One interesting addition was to Bill's story itself. Four paragraphs were added to Bill's own story after copies of the original manuscript were made. These paragraphs can be found hand written at the beginning of Bills personal copy of that manuscript. Interestingly, these additions to Bill's story (which are included in the first edition of the book) are not in Bill's handwriting.

We formed a group to study photos of that manuscript. It was quite interesting to hear the thoughts of others about why specific changes might have been made (revisions to the way Bill originally wrote it). There were quite a few changes in the final few months before the book came out in April of 1939.

"The Book That Started It All" is worth a look.

What I would call'' significant'' are two decisions that to ,my mind probably are the main reason Alcoholics Anonymous has existed up until today . I honestly believe if these decisions had not been took Alcoholics Anonymous perhaps would have folded many years ago .

1 Jim Burwell Pioneer number 3 in the 4th edition of the Big Book , he is mainly responsible for the term ''God as We Understand Him '' Jim and I think one other don't know if it was Fritz Mayo? anyhow Jim was adamant that that term must be used in the Big Book , others tried to browbeat and insist differently but Jim would not budge so the majority relented , and I believe Jim Burwell the main reasons for the term ''Higher Power '' Jim of course was an atheist .

2 Rockefeller and some other very wealthy business types , attended a meeting in the early days, AA members went cap in hand more or less looking for money to boost AA. Rockefeller said that Alcoholics Anonymous was a wonderful idea /fellowship , but ! the one thing that would destroy it was money , ( I believe on the principle of one alcoholic helping another without any personal gain )

He was correct, and that to me , is one of the main reasons that Alcoholics Anonymous is self supporting , He donated some ''one time only '' money (small for him ) to meet some bills and running expenses and Alcoholics Anonymous flourished in other ways.

One other significant event was the Jack Alexander article about Alcoholics Anonymous in 1941, shortly afterwards AA membership went through the roof .

Regards Stevie recovered 12 03 2006

I find 2 things really interesting
when Bill met Bob and they spoke the same language

when they went to see Bill D in the hospital.He left there never to drink again..it just gets me mushy deep inside when I read those 2 pieces

one very interesting historical thing is the original six steps.
your post about the handwritten manuscript reminded me.
those six steps , in one of their outlines, made much more sense to me when i first looked at AA than the 12 steps.
they seemed simple and doable.

Just in case anyone is interested, Not God by Ernest Kurt is a great history (imo) of AA.

-allan

Funny enough Allan I ordered it today , I read his other book (co written ) Spirituality of Imperfection which is excellent .

Regards Stevie Recovered 12 03 2006 .

The 3 things which have always resonated with me in particular have been:

1. The seemingly unsuccessful visit to John D. Rockefeller, which proved to be a blessing in disguise;

2. The Doctor's Opinions (how incredibly prescient these have proved to be); and

3. As a lawyer, I especially like the visit to AA No. 3, which is actually covered in 2 different places in the first 164 pages ("he walked out of that hospital a free man, never to drink again" - a "free man" indeed).

All I know is that you have the opportunity to visit Dr. Bob's house, do it. I had one of the best spiritual experience in my life there.

I was trying to upload some scans of NYC Intergroup's first meeting list from 1946 but it was too large. I love local history; AA or otherwise. We have a lot of really old groups here. Some that I have regularly attended are going on 75+ years. My current home group is is 67 or 68.

-allan

One of my favourite pieces is the foreword to the second edition. The foreword is a part of a book that I almost never read and it took me a few years to get onto this.

It gives great hope, talking about recovery rates at a time when the fellowship was big enough for the program to have established its credibility, yet small enough for the writers to have a good idea how things were going. It is pretty much a report on the results of publishing the first edition.

Yet there is more inspiration to be had by looking at the growth of the fellwoship. from 100 or so to over 150,000 between 1939 and 1955, just 16 years if memory serves. The bulk of this growth was one alcoholic talking to another, using the book as a guide, though there were many instances of people finding relief initially just through the book.

If you care to sit down with a pencil and paper and play with some numbers, it quickly becomes apparent that the members must have been incredibly active in helping others. They couldn't sit around and wait a year or two till they were ready, the demand was too great.

The two stand out elements seem to be a high degree of activity working with others, and a high degree of success in recovery. I wonder if there is a lesson there.

Ebby: "It's really just not your fault the stock market crashed, Bill..."

Ever wonder about that conversation?

First losing people's millions, then saving people by the millions. Tough act to follow.

I have a possible clarification and one question.

I agree with you Stevie. Without the tolerance and acceptance inherent in the phrase "as we understood him" AA might not have survived. In fact I believe the phrase is so important that it is worthy of an acronym ;) .

It's my understanding that Hank Parkhurst was the other individual who fought for the inclusion of that phrase. (It's widely believed that Hank wrote "To Employers". Notice that the word 'God' does not appear in that chapter). Hank's story, "The Unbeliever" is in the first edition. Fritz Mayo was on the other side of the argument from Hank P. and Jim B, as I recall.

Despite Jim Burwell's attempt to take credit for coming up with the "God as we understood Him" idea, I don't believe he was the one who did. At least Bill W. never acknowledged that Burwell was the one who had done so. Even Bill's own story in the big book quotes Ebby as suggesting that Bill choose his own conception of God . But perhaps I'm putting too fine a point on it. I'm sort of a stickler when it comes to accuracy regarding AA history and Jim Burwell has been shown to be notoriously inaccurate in many of his accounts. I don't give him credit for the idea, though I do believe he fought hard for its inclusion in the book.

My question is to cairn. Where did you find that quote?

For me the biggest influence had to be the Big Book. I read it cover to cover after the chair person at my first meeting gave me the book, and I was able to immediately identify with it. That helped me get off of the fence on whether or not I belonged in AA.

with the thousands of suggestions and complaining over the years to change it, the big book hasn't changed.

As to AA being a living growing work-in-progress, local DCM reports that some rehab kids up here in the pacific northwest are moving to remove the words 'powerless' and 'unmanageable' from the first step :)

[awuh, sorry, I kinda made that up while reading how Bill 'acquainted Ebby with his problems', during a i'm so alone and godawful moment - should i delete it from your thread? I'm pretty new at socializing sry]

Hey Cairn I liked it , any more ?