The Language of the Heart: A Cultural History of the Recovery Movement from Alcoholics Anonymous to Oprah Winfrey

In The Language of the Heart, Trysh Travis explores the rich cultural history of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and its offshoots and the larger “recovery movement” that has grown out of them. Moving from AA’s beginnings in the mid-1930s as a men’s fellowship that met in church basements to the thoroughly commercialized addiction treatment centers of today, Travis chronicles the development of recovery and examines its relationship to the broad American tradition of self-help, highlighting the roles that gender, mysticism, and bibliotherapy have played in that development.

Trysh Travis is associate professor of women’s studies at the University of Florida. She helped to found and now edits Points: the Blog of the Alcohol and Drugs History Society.