Dan1888

They way that Ive heard people talk about it on here its as if its some kind of bible to them.

With new ideas and advice on how to deal with alcoholism always emerging, Im taking it people do update the "big book" with whatever they feel is relevant?

Dee74

Are you using AA Dan? or planning to?

D

KateL

I think it remains the same, but some take what they want and leave or interpret the rest xxxxxxx

sugarbear1

it is currently on it's 4th edition, but limited changes have been made throughout the years as the method itself works for many

not only that, but getting a group of drunks to agree is a major task and AA follows it's 12 Traditions, too......

It was dubbbed Big Book as the first printing was on cheap paper, but large paper, and it became a huge book and many joked about it's size.....

IOAA2

I've heard many different people over the years say, after many repeated readings of the BB, that they never saw or read this or that sentence before. Often these sightings are at a time we need them.

BE WELL

ScottFromWI

It's a copyrighted book with multiple revisions, so I would imagine it has been updated.

Have you read it? I don't attend AA meetings or work steps but i have read the big book more than once. Regardless of when it was last updated it contains info anyone who struggles with alcohol should read. The stories are of course from the past but the message they carry is still very relevant.

sugarbear1

scott, some stories were taken out and new ones had been added by the last printing

matt4x4

Stories change (in the back of the book), but the basic recovery text (the first 164 pages) has been the same since the first edition, written in the 1930's.

See the thing with the bible is its more then 2000 years old. Originally written in a language that is long lost to history and no one knows specifically what the symbols or words meant. So over the thousands of years, different people try to decode, and translate a language that is lost to history. Then over the same thousands of years the story is told and by doing so, the story changes. Do that over and over and over again, and the story drastically changes.

Here our Big Book was written in Englsih, that everyone understands. The society and its morals have drastically changed, out-dating a few terms, but over-all the Oxford Dictionary has a definition for all the words.

That is one thing I tell all of my new sponsees, is you go and buy a big book if one is not given to you, and you go and buy a dictionary so you can understand every word that is written and we will go over it, highliting the important sentences, and writting in the margins notes on what was written, then we dog-ear the corner of the page for majorly important pages. Like the doctors opinion.

ScottFromWI

Thanks. I guess my point was more that even if the stores were old they would still be relevant. People have struggled with, and will continue to struggle with alcohol as long as there are people and alcohol. And even if you found a 2nd or 1st edition lying around it would still be worth reading, even if you aren't an AA member.

biminiblue

I agree, the BB is a wonderfully written book. Regardless of its dated language and the differences in social arrangements, like the Bible its lessons are still valid.

People are people, and alcoholics are alcoholics. It's like a How To Live Successfully book.

WMJ1012

The disease of alcoholism had been around since man first crushed grapes (actually before.)

Therefore the Solution to it certainly wouldn't change in 80 short years, "modern" or not.

Coldfusion

If anyone has a problem with the fact that the Big Book is 75 years old, I suggest the program of Narcotics Anonymous. (Alcoholics are welcome to join, as alcohol is considered a drug.) Their literature is written very differently, more "neutral," and the text is updated with new editions.

FeenixxRising

The Big Book has not been revised in the way you've described. The Big Book's text describing the "solution" for alcoholism has not had any major (and probably no minor) revisions since the book was first published in 1939. AA offers a spiritual program, so the program remains the same and really needs no revisions. It's not a medical or science based program. Therefore, no new approaches to treating alcoholism have been added to the Big Book.

One either accepts, believes and uses AA's spiritual approach or they do not. There are secular and science based options for treating addiction if AA is not one's cup of tea. AA is neither secular or science based, but it works for many alcoholics, and it is readily available all over the world.

FeenixxRising

There is no one capital "S" solution for alcoholism, there are many. AA offers a solution that works for some, for others it simply doesn't work.

doggonecarl

If it saved your life, you'd probably revere it, like many do the Bible.

awuh1

And I would add to Carl's comment that they would also tend to capitalize the S.

NoelleR

There has not been a valid US copyright on the main text of Alcoholics Anonymous (the first 164 pages +/-) for more than 40, almost 50, years.

ScottFromWI

I based what I wrote on the data posted on AA.org which reads as pasted below and shows a copywright date of 2001. Perhaps the data is incorrect but it is listed on

Big Book Online - Copyright Information

Copyright © 1939, 1955, 1976, 2001 by
Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
All rights reserved.

First Edition, sixteen printings, 1939 to 1955
Second Edition, sixteen printings, 1955 to 1974
Third Edition, seventy-four printings, 1976 to 2001
Fourth Edition, New and Revised 2001
First printing, October 2001
Eighteenth printing, August 2006

Personal stories on pages 407, 476, 494, 531, and 553 are copyrighted © by
The A.A. Grapevine, Inc., and are reprinted here with permission.

This is A.A. General Service
Conference-approved literature

Alcoholics Anonymous and A.A. are registered
trademarks® of A.A. World Services, Inc.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2001094693
ISBN 1-893007-16-2

Coldfusion

I have the twenty-eighth printing of the Fourth Edition from November, 2011. Some of the footnotes (eg, the number of active groups) are updated to 2011.

NoelleR

Your info is correct, but perhaps misunderstood. When a copyright expires (like on the first 164 pages of th BB), they rae considered in the public domain. If one writes a new book (like the 3rd ed of the BB) that includes those 'public domain' pages, adds stories, etc., and then copyrights this new book, that copyright only covers the new add-on's and does not cover the 'public domain' pages; they're still free 'n clear in 'public domain.'

(o:
NoelleR