In the aftermath of Prohibition, America’s top scientists joined forces with AA members and put their clout behind a campaign to convince the nation that alcoholism is a disease. They had no proof, but they hoped to find it once research money came pouring in. The campaign spanned decades, and from it grew a multimillion-dollar treatment industry and a new government agency devoted to alcoholism. But scientists’ research showed that problem drinking is not a singular disease but a complex phenomenon requiring an array of strategies. There’s less scientific evidence for the effectiveness of AA than there is for most other treatments, including self-enforced moderation, therapy and counseling, and targeted medications; AA’s own surveys show that it doesn’t work for the overwhelming majority of problem drinkers. Five years in the making, Joe Miller’s brilliant, in-depth investigative reporting into the history, politics, and science of alcoholism shows exactly how AA became our nation’s de facto treatment policy, even as evidence accumulated for more effective remedies-and how, as a result, those who suffer the most often go untreated. US of AA is a character-driven, beautifully written expos E, full of secrecy, irony, liquor industry money, the shrillest of scare tactics, and, at its center, a grand deception. In the tradition of Crazy by Pete Earley and David Goldhill’s Catastrophic Care, US of AA shines a much-needed spotlight on the addiction treatment industry. It will forever change the way we think about the entire enterprise.
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