Table of Contents for the Big Book
Front Matter — The Groundwork
Preface — p. xi The book names itself the basic text. The first 164 pages left untouched across every revision — only the stories change.
Foreword to First Edition (1939) — p. xiii Who we are, why we're anonymous. The purpose sentence: to show precisely how we recovered. The book announces itself as instruction, not memoir.
Foreword to Second Edition (1955) — p. xv The origin story — Bill and Dr. Bob told anonymously; one alcoholic reaching another as no one else can. The program in five phrases from the Oxford Groups: inventory, confession, restitution, helpfulness, dependence on God. The fellowship took its name from the title of its own book.
Foreword to Third Edition (1976) — p. xxii A million members. The steps trace exactly the same path in every language and lifestyle.
Foreword to Fourth Edition (2001) — p. xxiii Two million members, forty-three languages. People who normally would not mix — fulfilled.
The Doctor's Opinion — p. xxv Step One, complete. The allergy and the phenomenon of craving — the body, why the real alcoholic can't safely stop once started. The restless, irritable, discontented sober condition — the unmanageability and the spiritual malady, with alcohol as the solution that works before it becomes the problem. Ends by pointing toward Step Two: more than human power is needed, and the psychic change.
Chapter 1: Bill's Story — pp. 1–16
All twelve steps, demonstrated. The arc of p. 58 as biography: the mess (pp. 1–8), what happened (pp. 8–14), what it's like now (pp. 14–16). Steps 1 through 11 pass in three paragraphs on p. 13; Step Twelve on pp. 14–15. The program shown working before the book argues for it.
Chapter 2: There Is a Solution — pp. 17–29
Steps One and Two, told in narrative. The real alcoholic identified, human power exhausted, the common solution named — a spiritual experience. The transmission principle, Step Twelve's seed: one alcoholic reaching another. And the thesis, five times over: the solution is in this book, directions ahead.
Chapter 3: More About Alcoholism — pp. 30–43
Step Two — the insanity defined. The thoughts that precede the first drink — Jim, the jaywalker, Fred's blank spots. The only chapter that defines the insanity Step Two promises restoration from.
Chapter 4: We Agnostics — pp. 44–57
Steps Two and Three. Willingness to believe, your own conception of God as sufficient, and the either/or choice framed — ending with the surrender that chapter five formalizes.
Chapter 5: How It Works — pp. 58–71
Steps Three and Four. The directions begin.
The twelve steps, in full — pp. 59–60
Step Three — pp. 60–63 (Third Step prayer, p. 63)
Step Four — pp. 63–71 (resentment, fear, sex)
Chapter 6: Into Action — pp. 72–88
Steps Five through Eleven.
Step Five — pp. 72–75
Steps Six & Seven — pp. 75–76 (Seventh Step prayer, p. 76)
Steps Eight & Nine — pp. 76–84 (the Promises, pp. 83–84)
Step Ten — pp. 84–85 (sanity will have returned, p. 84)
Step Eleven — pp. 85–88 (the hunch becomes a working part of the mind — it works, it really does, pp. 87–88)
Chapter 7: Working With Others — pp. 89–103
Step Twelve. A field manual for the prospect who may or may not want to get sober — every branch built on consent. The story template all 43 stories follow (pp. 91–93). And the callback: five references to this book — the message we carry is the text; every other message ruled out by name.
Chapters 8–11: Practicing These Principles
Step Twelve's third clause, domain by domain — homes, occupations, and affairs (p. 19).
To Wives — pp. 104–121 — the principles in marriage: patience, tolerance, understanding, love (the watchwords, p. 118)
The Family Afterward — pp. 122–135 — the principles at home: tolerance, understanding, love as common ground (p. 122); giving rather than getting, the guiding principle (p. 128); happy, joyous, and free (p. 133); the three mottoes (p. 135)
To Employers — pp. 136–150 — the principles at work: understanding above all — the alcoholic as sick, not weak; patience, tolerance, forgiveness, honesty, confidence, fairness
A Vision for You — pp. 151–164 — the principles carried outward: reliance on God, humility, service (p. 164); the whole program in four commands — abandon, admit, clear away, give freely (p. 164); fellowship as the promise
“Our book is meant to be suggestive only. We realize we know only a little. God will constantly disclose more to you and to us. Ask Him in your morning meditation what you can do each day for the man who is still sick. The answers will come, if your own house is in order. But obviously you cannot transmit something you haven't got. See to it that your relationship with Him is right, and great events will come to pass for you and countless others. This is the Great Fact for us.
Abandon yourself to God as you understand God. Admit your faults to Him and to your fellows. Clear away the wreckage of your past. Give freely of what you find and join us. We shall be with you in the Fellowship of the Spirit, and you will surely meet some of us as you trudge the Road of Happy Destiny.
May God bless you and keep you - until then.”
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