No need to join forums or swap opinions or guess about A.A. history. After 23 years of intensive research, travel, interviews, archives, libraries, and reading, we can provide you with accurate scholarly information about Alcoholics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous History.
Possibly the most misunderstood and most speculated about connection with A.A. is that of the Oxford Group, originally known as A First Century Christian Fellowship, then as Moral Re-Armament, and finally as Initiatives for Change.
The Oxford Group was very different from Alcoholics Anonymous. But its life-changing program became the format for the "new" program Bill W. fashioned with Oxford Group leader Rev. Sam Shoemaker, Jr., as Bill began penning his new Big Book and Twelve Step program published four years after A.A. was founded - in 1939.
To understand Bill's new program, as distinguished from the simple Christian Fellowship program of Akron A.A. founded in 1935, a knowledge of the ideas, language, and mission of the Oxford Group can help you understand the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. It can also show you why A.A. did not emerge from the Oxford Group, but rather got its basic ideas from the Bible. See Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous: Biographical Sketches Their Last Major Talks, and Dick B., The Good Book and the Big Book: A.A.'s Roots in the Bible www.dickb.com/goodbook.shtml.
The most accurate, complete, and scholarly book on the subject is Dick B.'s The Oxford Group & Alcoholics Anonymous: A Design for Living that Works. www.dickb.com/Oxford.shtml. It is available in print on demand and most easily purchased through Amazon.com
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