This book was well written and documented. It has much historical and spiritual value. My disappointment in the book was that it did not contain the contents of Anne Smith's Journal as a whole. It is an editorialized document written about Anne Smith's Journal, much in the form of a term paper. I did enjoy reading the excerpts from her journal and would have liked to read it for myself. One gets the sense of who and what Anne Smith was from this book, however the total effect is broken up by the many outside points and notations. I would like to see a copy of the original journal as a part of this book. I think that this would complete the work. I understand that the journal by itself is not a complete document. The combination of the two would be a excellant resource for spiritual growth and AA history.

Dick B. here presents part of his ten years of research on early A.A. history. But the Anne Smith contribution is tops because the material is unavailable elsewhere. The original copy was obtained from A.A. with support of Dr. Bob's daughter and consent of Trustees. But it can't be seen or republished.That's the top value of this history. On careful reading, I found that the order of presentation is that of the relation of the Twelve Steps to Anne's writing in her journal as the early years moved on. It's been a lost treasure. Dick was the historian who brought it to light as a real resource for understanding the Alcoholics Anonymous roots. Good for reading. Good for understanding. Good for Christians like me.

Dick Smith's book is an excellent primer for amateur, aspiring f/x make-up artists and a handy guide for those who are experienced. His techniques are simple, inexpensive and timeless yet with the knowledge Mr. Smith provides you can achieve excellent results. This book really needs to come back into print! From simple highlighting and shading to making your own stage blood, this is a must-have guide to keep with your f/x makeup case. I would recommend anyone interested in learning f/x makeup to try to locate a copy of this excellent manual.

This volume purports to be an account of how early AA members depended on the Bible as their primary source of spiritual guidance. But, as in so many cases, the "historian" here has a definite agenda. In this case the agenda is to advance the author's religious beliefs by attempting to use the "historical record" to show that AA is today minimally successful (a "tiny" recovery rate in the author's words on page #8) compared to the "early days" when the author purports the Bible was widely used as the primary spiritual sourcebook.

A great example of the "scholarship and objectivity" of the author's research is on page #7 where he makes his first and chief argument concerning the success rate of early AA. I quote his first paragraph of that section exactly:

"Early AA claimed at least a seventy-five percent success rate among those who really tried. Early AAs, who were "medically incurable" in the late 1930's, actually recovered from their seemingly hopeless disease at that very high percentage rate."

This quotation is footnoted specifically with footnote #20. At the bottom of page 7, footnote #20 is there as expected. It looks quite impressive. Again, I quote exactly:

(20) Big Book (3rd ed., 1976), pp. xiii, xv, xvii, xxiii, 17, 20, 29, 45, 90, 96, 113, 132, 133, 146, 165, 309, 310.

There are exactly 17 pages referenced in that footnote. Anyone can open up that most widely distributed edition of the "Big Book" (Alcoholics Anonymous, ISBN 0916856003) and find that there is not one single reference to AA's success rate on any of those pages. Not a single one. I checked each page referenced, just to be sure, and so can anyone else. On most of the pages referenced, there is nothing even remotely related to the author's footnoted subject-matter.

A typographical error perhaps? Seventeen of them in a row? Historical scholarship? A desperate attempt to document a tidy revision of AA history? You be the judge.

In contrast to this author's "scholarship", here's an actual fact that can be easily verified by thousands upon thousands of AA members, including my own 25 years of AA experience. Every day in AA meetings all across the world, people are happily sharing their personal spiritual success stories and their authentic relationships with God and the resulting relief from their addictions. A significant number of those people (if not most) do not find it necessary to claim any religious affiliation whatsoever, or dependence on the Bible, or any other particular religious text. This state of affairs is evidently very, very disturbing to the author. It shakes his particular "the Bible is the only way" belief-system. I believe that undeniable reality motivated him to write this book.

If this book had stopped with researching early AA's spiritual roots, it would have been a success. When it crossed the line over to evangelism, it failed, especially when its foundation is built on the unstable sands of research of the quality of the above example. Definitely not recommended, unless it is reclassified as fiction.

The A.A. program came into being by breaking away from the Oxford Group. There have remained splinter groups which attempt to practice 'pure' Oxford Group programs. Such groups regularly claim that their special version of AA is '100% successful.' This is easy to claim if all failures are rationalized away as failure to comply with this religious program. One pamphlet makes this clear by stating that drinking cancels AA membership.

AA states: 'The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking.' There is NO religious requirement for AA membership.

The A.A. pamphlet "44 Questions" includes the following:

"Is A.A. a religious society?

"A.A. is not a religious society, since it requires no definite religious belief as a condition of membership. Although it has been endorsed and approved by many religious leaders, it is not allied with any organization or sect. Included in its membership are Catholics, Protestants, Jews, members of other major religious bodies, agnostics, and atheists.

"The A.A. program of recovery from alcoholism is undeniably based on acceptance of certain spiritual values. The individual member is free to interpret those values as he or she thinks best, or not to think about them at all.

"Most members, before turning to A.A., had already admitted that they could not control their drinking. Alcohol had become a power greater than themselves, and it had been accepted on those terms. A.A. suggests that to achieve and maintain sobriety, alcoholics need to accept and depend upon another Power recognized as greater than themselves. Some alcoholics choose to consider the A.A. group itself as the power greater than themselves; for many others, this Power is God - as they, individually, understand Him; still others rely upon entirely different concepts of a Higher Power.

"Some alcoholics, when they first turn to A.A., have definite reservations about accepting any concept of a Power greater than themselves. Experience shows that, if they will keep an open mind on the subject and keep coming to A.A. meetings, they are not likely to have too difficult a time in working out an acceptable solution to this distinctly personal problem."

There's a whole new rush to find out what early A.A.'s did with the Bible. I'm a Christian and a Bible student. And I'm delighted to see the trend. I've read Dick' book; and it think it meets the growing need for information that's been missing in 12 Step movements for many years now.