US OF AA

In US of AA, Miller shares the never-before-told story of how in the aftermath of prohibition America's top scientists helped launch a movement that would give rise to a multi-million-dollar treatment industry and a new government agency devoted to alcoholism that has made available millions of dollars for research. Despite the fact that this research showed that alcoholism is a complex disease requiring an array of treatment strategies, among which Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is one of the least effective, money continued to flow to treatment facilities using approaches similar to AA. Five years in the making, his brilliant, in-depth investigative reporting into the history, politics and science of alcoholism will show how AA became our nation's de facto treatment policy, even as evidence for more effective remedies accumulated. US of AA is a character-driven, beautifully written exposé, full of secrecy, irony, liquor industry money, the shrillest of scare tactics and, at its center, a grand deception. In the tradition of Pete Earley's Crazy and David Goldhill's Catastrophic Care, US of AA shines a spotlight on the addiction treatment industry. It will forever change the way we think about the entire enterprise.

About the Author
Joe Miller is an award-winning journalist and author, and an associate professor of English at Columbus State University in Georgia. His first book, Cross-X: The Amazing True Story of How the Most Unlikely Team from the Most Unlikely of Places Overcame Staggering Obstacles at Home and at School to Challenge the Debate Community on Race, Power, and Education was selected as one of the best books of the year by the Chicago Tribune, Kansas City Star and Publisher's Weekly.