Members may be interested in a new book, Jared C. Lobdell, THIS STRANGE
ILLNESS: ALCOHOLISM AND BILL W (NY: Aldine-DeGruyter 2004, xii+403 pp, pb
$26.95).  From the cover blurb (which more or less covers it), the "book is
at once an intellectual history of Bill W.'s vision; a short history of
alcohol addiction and the culture of that addiction; a treatise on the
psychological, biochemical, and spiritual aspects of the illness and its
treatment; and a scientific research program for the future."  Some of the
book is certainly speculative, but one scholar is good enough to say that
the book is the most intellectually rigorous study he has ever seen in the
field.  In any case, I had fun in the six years I spent writing it,
including a brief time as a Kirk Fellow at Brown when it was almost done,
and I hope members of the ATHG may enjoy reading at least parts of it as
much as I enjoyed the writing. -- Jared Lobdell