Can We Conquer Alcoholism? By Marty Mann
Can We Conquer Alcoholism? — Marty Mann
National Committee on Alcoholism | Revised January 1951
Offered here is an original 1951 revised edition of Can We Conquer Alcoholism? by Marty Mann, issued by the National Committee on Alcoholism.
Originally published in the July 1947 issue of Health, this important early essay presents Mann’s campaign to change the way America understood and treated alcoholism. Rather than viewing the alcoholic as morally deficient or deserving punishment, Mann argued that alcoholism should be recognized as an illness requiring understanding, treatment, and community action.
The pamphlet summarizes three principles central to the National Committee’s work:
1. Alcoholism is a disease, and the alcoholic is a sick person.
2. The alcoholic can be helped and is worth helping.
3. Alcoholism is a public-health problem and therefore a public responsibility.
Mann also discusses her own experience with alcoholism and directly credits Alcoholics Anonymous with demonstrating that alcoholics could recover in significant numbers. This revised 1951 version states that A.A. had grown to more than 100,000 active members, illustrating the Fellowship’s remarkable expansion during its first sixteen years.
Marty Mann & the National Committee on Alcoholism
Marty Mann was an early member of Alcoholics Anonymous and became one of the most influential public advocates for changing America’s understanding of alcoholism.
Her work extended beyond A.A. through the organization that became the National Committee on Alcoholism, which focused on public education, reducing stigma, encouraging medical treatment, and developing community resources for alcoholics.
Can We Conquer Alcoholism? captures that mission at an important point in its development. Mann calls for information centers, hospital treatment, diagnostic clinics, and greater public understanding while repeatedly pointing to Alcoholics Anonymous as evidence that recovery was possible.
Publication Details
Title: Can We Conquer Alcoholism?
Author: Marty Mann
Issued By: National Committee on Alcoholism
Location: Academy of Medicine Building, 2 East 103rd Street, New York
Original Publication: Health, July 1947
Edition: Revised January 1951
Format: Stapled pamphlet
Condition
This copy is in very good condition, particularly for an early 1950s pamphlet.
The covers remain clean and attractive with light handling and age toning. The interior pages are clean and clearly legible, and the original staples remain intact. There are several small handwritten marks in the margins of one interior spread.
Please review all photographs carefully for the exact condition of the pamphlet being offered.
Collector Significance
This is an excellent piece of early Marty Mann and alcoholism-education history, documenting the effort to move alcoholism away from punishment and stigma and toward treatment and public-health education.
