US of AA by Joe Miller

US of AA by Joe Miller

In US of A, 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 (A) is one of the least effective, money continued to flow to treatment facilities using approaches similar to A. Five years in the making, his brilliant, in-depth investigative reporting into the history, politics, and science of alcoholism will show how A became our nation's de facto treatment policy, even as evidence for more effective remedies accumulated.

US of A is a character-driven, beautifully written expos , 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 A shines a much-needed spotlight on the addiction treatment industry. It will forever change the way we think about the entire enterprise.

JOE MILLER is an outdoor adventure columnist who regularly hikes, bikes, camps, and paddles. He has written about the outdoors for The News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina, since 1992 and has written a weekly outdoors column, Take it Outside for ten years. 100 Classic Hikes North Carolina is his first book.