MORE THAN TWENTY YEARS AGO, my adviser in graduate school, Walter P. Metzger, suggested that I write this book. I had just told him that I was a recovering alcoholic. He replied with his customary enthusiasm that the history of recovery would make a great subject for someone who had actually experienced it. Professor Metzger died earlier this year. I remain very grateful for his encouragement.
Every writer on the history of addiction and recovery stands on the shoulders of William L. White, author of Slaying the Dragon: The History of Addiction Treatment and Recovery in America. Published in 1998 and revised in 2014, Slaying the Dragon is a comprehensive history of the subject told by someone who has been personally involved in the recovery movement since the 1960s. Bill has worn many hats during his career: counselor, clinical director, researcher, trainer, and consultant. He has authored or coauthored eighteen books and more than four hundred articles, monographs, research reports, and book chapters. I am grateful to Bill for offering advice at key points in my research and for introducing me to Patty McCarthy Metcalf at Faces & Voices of Recovery and Greg Williams at Facing Addiction, who provided information about recent developments in the recovery movement.
Early in my research, I was fortunate to participate in the Addiction Studies Program for Journalists that was sponsored by the Wake Forest University School of Medicine and National Families in Action. The program brought together science reporters and other people writing about addiction and recovery for a two-day program in Washington, DC, which included presentations by experts on the physiology of alcoholism, drug prevention, and treatment for alcohol, and drug addiction. I want to thank the program director, Professor David Friedman of Wake Forest, and codirector Sue Rusche, the president and chief executive officer of National Families in Action.
Several libraries provided invaluable assistance. The Center for Alcohol Studies Library at Rutgers University is a gold mine for researchers. The Rutgers School of Alcohol Studies is the successor of the pioneering alcohol studies program established at Yale University in the 1940s, and its library inherited and expanded the collection of books, magazines, and other material started at Yale. The Rutgers library is headed by the expert and accommodating Judit H. Ward. Like so many other researchers, I have benefited from a temporary home in the Wertheim Room of the New York Public Library, which has been ably administered by Jay Barksdale and Melanie Locay. I also want to thank the librarians at the Syracuse University Library and the Illinois State Library as well as the General Service Office of Alcoholics Anonymous.
One of the pleasures of writing this book is that it has given me another opportunity to work with Beacon Press. Helene Atwan, the director, showed enthusiasm for the subject even before there was a formal proposal, and the manuscript has benefited enormously from her rigorous editing. I am delighted to be working again with my friends Tom Hallock and Pam MacColl, and with the rest of the wonderful staff at Beacon.
I am also grateful to Jill Marr at the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency for championing the book and for her expert shepherding.
Finally, I want to express my love and appreciation to Dan Cullen and Mary Chris Welch, who listened to years of talking and complaining about the book. Of course, the top prize in this category goes to my wife, Pat Willard, who told me to shut up and keep writing.