One Drunk to Another What Not to Do
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THE FOUR ABSOLUTESABSOLUTE HONESTYABSOLUTE PURITYABSOLUTE UNSELFISHNESSABSOLUTE LOVE
Illustration · A writing table before dawn, with an open notebook, a pencil, a Bible and a card of the four absolutes: an Oxford Grouper’s morning quiet time. Not drawn from a photograph.

What Not to Do

The Oxford Group

The Christian movement that sobered up Ebby T., brought Bill W. and Dr. Bob together, and showed AA what to do, and what not to do.

“The Oxford Groupers had clearly shown us what to do. And, just as importantly, we had also learned from them what not to do as far as alcoholics were concerned.”

Bill W. · Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, 1957

Before there was AA, there was the Oxford Group: a Christian movement, led by a Lutheran minister from Pennsylvania named Frank Buchman, that set out to change the world one life at a time. Its people met in living rooms and hotel lounges. They shared their sins with one another, made restitution, and sat each morning with a notebook, listening for God. In 1934 it sobered up Ebby T., who carried its message to Bill W. In 1935 its Akron members brought Bill and Dr. Bob together.

The site tells that part of the story from the alcoholics’ side in several places. This piece tells it from the Group’s own: how Buchman started it with a letter of apology, how its method worked, how it came to Akron, its height in 1936 and its turn to statesmen and nations, and Bill W.’s own list of what AA learned from it, what to do and what not to do. Legacy follows what each side kept.

It’s built from the Group’s own books, by Howard Walter, Harold Begbie, Sam Shoemaker, Cecil Rose and others; Garth Lean’s biography of Buchman; TIME’s reporting; and AA’s histories: Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, Pass It On, Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers and Lois Remembers. Lean was one of Buchman’s followers, and AA’s books were written by the people who left. Where the accounts disagree, the pages say so.

Start with 1 · Keswick

The Group, year by year

  1. 1908At Keswick, in England’s Lake District, Frank Buchman writes six letters of apology.
  2. 1909At Penn State he starts the one-to-one personal work the Group will build its method on.
  3. 1925Sam Shoemaker becomes rector of Calvary Church in New York, soon the Group’s American home.
  4. 1928Newspapers in South Africa call Buchman’s team the Oxford Group, and the name sticks. Calvary House opens beside Shoemaker’s church.
  5. 1931The Group helps Bud Firestone, a rubber magnate’s son, stop drinking.
  6. 1933In thanks, Harvey Firestone brings a team of sixty to Akron for ten days in January.
  7. 1934Ebby T. sobers up with the Group’s help and carries its message to Bill W.
  8. 1935In May, Akron’s Oxford Groupers bring Bill W. and Dr. Bob together.
  9. 1936The national assembly at Stockbridge, and in August, Buchman’s interview about Hitler.
  10. 1937New York’s alcoholics part company with the Group.
  11. 1938Buchman launches Moral Re-Armament.
  12. 1939AA’s book comes out without naming the Group, and the alcoholics of Cleveland, then Akron, leave it.
  13. 1941Sam Shoemaker breaks with Buchman.
  14. 1955Shoemaker speaks at AA’s twentieth-anniversary convention in St. Louis.
  15. 1961Buchman dies at Freudenstadt, in Germany’s Black Forest.
  16. 2001Moral Re-Armament becomes Initiatives of Change.

Walk through the Group’s story

Each part has a short story, a one-minute audio stop, and a closer look for anyone who wants to go deeper. Read them in order, or start anywhere.

    New to the story? The Kitchen Table tells how AA began, from one drunk talking to another to millions around the world.

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