Urban Religion and the Origins of Addiction Recovery

2:00 p.m.

Sunday, March 22, 2015 at the William Clapp House

Eoin Cannon, aide to Boston’s Mayor Martin J. Walsh and author of The Saloon and the Mission. Tales of surviving the depths of addiction are among the most popular stories in American culture today, combining compelling drama with spiritual uplift and psychological insight. At the same time, story-telling plays an important role in recovery practices. When did Americans start telling recovery stories and why? Eoin Cannon traces  this phenomenon to the evangelical Christian missions run by reformed drunkards in American cities in the late 19th century.