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Search - And the Band Played On : Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic
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And the Band Played On : Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic Author: |
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Book Information
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Other Versions of this Book: Hardcover, Paperback, Audio Cassette
Book Description:
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.
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.
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Please Rate these Book Reviews
John O. (Good book, several stories developing at once, including the work that doctors did in the early years of the crisis, the efforts to close the gay bars in San Francisco, the rivalries of scientists working on a cure, and "Patient Zero", who may or may not have been responsible for the spread of AIDS across the continent. Like someone said before, reads like fiction, but it isn't (although the effect of Gaeton Dugas, patient zero, is highly speculative).
Liese S. (How great is this book? It is one I have read again and again. Really gives the feel of a horrible era in the US, and if you didn't live through it, maybe it won't have the same impact as it does on me. The story of the AIDS crisis: young, healthy people were dying in droves from a brand new, totally unknown illness, and the political implications were complicated and disturbing. Taken from Randy Shilts' newspaper columns of the time (although it does NOT read like journalism, more like fiction although it is not). Really absorbing. Nothing like the lightweight film made with Matthew Modine. No film could capture all the stories and personalities in this book. Highly recommend this.
GREAT book if you are interested in the AIDS epidemic and the handling of the problem in the 80's and early 90's. HBO made it into a GREAT movie.
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