And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic
In the first major book on AIDS, San Francisco Chronicle reporter Randy Shilts examines the making of an epidemic. Shilts researched and reported the book exhaustively, chronicling almost day-by-day the first five years of AIDS. His work is critical of the medical and scientific communities' initial response and particularly harsh on the Reagan Administration, who he claims cut funding, ignored calls for action and deliberately misled Congress. Shilts doesn't stop there, wondering why more people in the gay community, the mass media and the country at large didn't stand up in anger more quickly. The AIDS pandemic is one of the most striking developments of the late 20th century and this is the definitive story of its beginnings.
By the time Rock Hudson's death in 1985 alerted all America to the danger of the AIDS epidemic, the disease had spread across the nation, killing thousands of people and emerging as the greatest health crisis of the 20th century. America faced a troubling question: What happened? How was this epidemic allowed to spread so far before it was taken seriously? In answering these questions, Shilts weaves weaves the disparate threads into a coherent story, pinning down every evasion and contradiction at the highest levels of the medical, political, and media establishments. Shilts shows that the epidemic spread wildly because the federal government put budget ahead of the nation's welfare; health authorities placed political expediency before the public health; and scientists were often more concerned with international prestige than saving lives. Against this backdrop, Shilts tells the heroic stories of individuals in science and politics, public health and the gay community, who struggled to alert the nation to the enormity of the danger it faced. And the Band Played On is both a tribute to these heroic people and a stinging indictment of the institutions that failed the nation so badly.
At Smarter.com, we aim to ensure we give you the most sound buying advice possible. With our 'Cumulative Product Rating' system, in order for a product to receive a rating score, it must have a minimum number of ratings to qualify.
This system is not intended to diminish the value of products with a low number of ratings and reviews, they're great, and hopefully very helpful, but if you want our advice, we want to make sure that the product you're thinking of buying has been rated and reviewed by enough shoppers like you to be a valuable indicator of product quality.
Additional Product Information
- ISBN: 9780312241353
- Brand: N/A
- Reviews: Write a Review
- Shop: Compare prices
69 Reviews
| From: Amazon Posted: Jul 26, 2006 Type: User Review |
The Best Book I Read in 2005
And the Band Played On is an act of phenomenal research and writing, and a very frightening book on many levels because of the political wrangling, political bumbling, and political disregard for a medical crisis which cost the lives of so many,...
|
 5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Jun 06, 2006 Type: User Review |
AIDS: A Biography
Good stories work on several levels; they are multi-dimensional views of the same event. To honor the 25th anniversary of the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, I reread Randy Shilts's groundbreaking work, which was published a mere six years after...
|
5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: May 16, 2006 Type: User Review |
One of the most important books written the previous century
To me this important expose on the begining of the AIDS crises and Reagan's response is extremely important. It's now classic and old information. But it's a valuable history lesson we all must read.
|
5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Feb 06, 2006 Type: User Review |
And The Boys In The Band Played On
The sexual revolution is over, wrote an old revolutionist named P.J. O'Rourke, and the microbes won. This book, by an SF journalist now dead from AIDS, tells how the microbes won the war.
|
5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Nov 09, 2005 Type: User Review |
Scarier than any Stephen King novel...
You want to read a horror story? This is it. This is the shameful way our government dealt with AIDS in the first six years it appeared in the country- by doing nothing at all.
|
5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Nov 03, 2005 Type: User Review |
One of the most influencial books I've read this year.
Having been born in 1981 I was educated as a teen about the importance of safe sex and the realities of HIV and AIDS. But, this book brought home the true horrors of the history of the pandemic. While lengthy, it is extremely informative and, if...
|
5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Oct 23, 2005 Type: User Review |
Interesting and shocking.
Having seen the film that this book is based on several times, I was curious to read into the whole story... and this book does not pack any punches.
|
 4.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Oct 19, 2005 Type: User Review |
So why did he play without the band
The amazing part of this tragedy is that Shilits was a frequent visitor to the baths he condemns in this book even after knowing he was infected and thus infected countless other humans, directly or indirectly.
|
 1.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Oct 08, 2005 Type: User Review |
And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic
I was required to read this text for a class. I would not have normally picked something like this to read for pleasure. I found that this text is very attention grabbing, and it is extremly informational. I would recommend this text to others.
|
5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Oct 01, 2005 Type: User Review |
homage to hiv
Shilts' great book shows us how much of the AIDS related suffering of the last twenty years could so easily have been avoided. The book opens with the July 4th 1976 bicentennial celebration of American independence and closes with the death of...
|
5.00/5 |
Similar Products:
*Shipping costs are based on an estimate of the lowest shipping rate available within the contiguous US, excluding Alaska and Hawaii. Only merchants with this product in stock are listed (Merchants with this product back ordered have been removed from this list).
Do you see a pricing error? Please let us know by filling out a simple form: Click here