Appendix IV — When Public Health Caught Up to What the Doctor’s Opinion Said in 1939 – The A.

About This Speaker Tape

This is a brief reading of Appendix IV from the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous — the text of the Lasker Award citation presented to AA in 1951 by the American Public Health Association. There is no speaker share, no personal story, no qualification. It is a straight recitation of the official citation honoring AA for its approach to alcoholism as a public health issue.

The citation praises AA for treating alcoholism as an illness, which it credits with reducing the social stigma surrounding the condition. It predicts that historians may one day see AA as a landmark in social pioneering — a new therapy based on the kinship of common suffering, with potential application to many other human ills.

This recording is archival and educational in nature rather than a speaker tape. It preserves a historically significant moment of outside recognition for the Fellowship in its sixteenth year of existence.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Introduction of Appendix IV — the Lasker Award