16
FOREWORD
meet other difficulties of life. They think that the Twelv e
Ste ps can mean m or e tha n sobriety for problem drinkers.
Th e y see i n them a way to ha ppy and effective living for
many, alcoholic or not.
There is, too, a r ising inte re st in the Twe lve Tra diti on s
of Alc oholic s Anonymou s. Students of hu man relations are
beginni ng to wonder how and why A.A. functions as a so-
ci ety . W hy i s i t, they as k, th at i n A.A . n o m em b er can b e set
in personal authority over another, that nothing like a cen-
tral gov e rnmen t can an ywhe re be s een ? How can a se t of
trad itional principles, having no legal force at all, hold the
Fell owshi p of Alcoholics Anonymous in unity and eff ec -
tiveness? Th e second section of this volume, though
designe d for A .A .’s mem b ersh i p, wi ll gi v e suc h inquire rs a n
inside view of A.A. never before possible.
Alcoholi cs Anonym ous began in 1935 in Akron, Ohio,
as the outcome of a meeting between a wel l -known sur-
geon and a New York broker. Both were severe cases of
al coh ol i sm and were des ti ned to b ecom e co-f ounders of the
A.A. Fell owship.
Th e bas ic princ iples of A.A ., as the y a re known tod a y,
were borrowed mainly from the fields of reli g ion an d
medicine, though som e ideas upon whi ch success finall y
depen ded w ere th e re sult of n oti n g the beh av i or an d n eeds
of the Fe llow ship itself.
After three years of trial and error in selecting the most
workab l e te ne ts upon whi ch the Society could be ba sed,
and af ter a l arge am oun t of f ai lure i n getting al coholi cs to
rec ov er, three successf ul groups em erged the first at
Akron, the second in New York, and th e th i rd at Cl eve l and.