I mentioned elsewhere that literature about management and leadership is difficult to appraise because the nature of leadership is such that they have influence over the shape and spread of their own narratives. In that spirit, this book is best seen as a primary source reflecting how AA’s leading figures wished to present themselves and the organization in 1957. I’ll be treating it as such anyways while cross-referencing this work with other significant histories that have been published since. Specifically:
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Not-God: A History of Alcoholics Anonymous (1979) by Ernest Kurtz
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Slaying the Dragon - The History of Addiction Treatment and Recovery in America (1998) by William L. White
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My Name is Bill (2004) by Susan Cheever
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Writing the Big Book: The Creation of AA (2019) by William H. Schaberg
From Schaberg’s book:
“Bill Wilson, the man who contributed more ‘factual’ information than anyone else to the traditional story of A.A., was by far the worst offender when it came to accuracy regarding their early history. This may sound harsh to Wilson’s many worshipful admirers in the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous, but it is an undeniable fact… Wilson’s divergence from the truth was so common and so pervasive that it can only be compared to a dark cloud looming over any attempt to write an accurate history of A.A.’s early years, obscuring and even falsifying what happened at several key points in the story.”