Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

And the Band Played On: Politics, People, And the AIDS Epidemic, by Randy Shilts

4 reviews

usually_sleep_deprived's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Addiction, Gaslighting, Chronic illness, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Hate crime, Medical content, Terminal illness, Torture, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Police brutality, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Ableism, Abandonment, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Classism, Cursing, Lesbophobia, Medical trauma, Outing, Physical abuse, Self harm, Violence, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

camillatd's review against another edition

challenging dark informative sad slow-paced

5.0

A gripping, harrowing, and incredibly well-researched piece of investigative journalism, And The Band Played On takes the reader through a detailed account of the first five years of the AIDS epidemic in the United States. I want to first note that as this book was published in 1987, it is certainly not without flaw. In the 35 years since then, the scientific and public health communities have learned much about HIV/AIDS, including the truth behind the assumed "Patient Zero" identified in the early 1980s, Gaetan Dugas. Many have written about Shilts' characterization of Dugas, as well as the other figures featured in the book, so I won't dwell on it here. 

The true feat of Randy Shilts' magnum opus is how he makes a 600-page piece of investigative journalism come alive. Dense with figures, medical jargon, and institutional acronyms, And The Band Played On seems like it would be nearly unreadable. But somehow, Shilts weaves these pieces of data into a compelling narrative. He does this primarily by lending humanity and depth to the central figures in the early years of the epidemic. Considering the historiographical context, Shilts' portrayal of those suffering from AIDS would have contrasted sharply with the regular dehumanization of sufferers by the media and the government. 

Most of all, this work is a damning indictment of the politicization of disease, systemic homophobia, and the failures of political bureaucracy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Medical trauma, Terminal illness, Death, Grief, Homophobia, and Drug abuse

emmeline's review against another edition

personally, I didn't vibe with the writing style. that combined with the size of the book and the small font size made this difficult for me to actually pick up and want to finish. I feel like a learned a lot from what I did read, specifically from the medical perspective and how doctors and researchers reacted. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Death, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Drug use, Grief, Homophobia, and Sexual content

fawns's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative sad slow-paced

5.0

After watching Pose on Netflix I picked up And The Band Played On to learn more about the AIDS crisis. I was too young to know what was going on when it first started and have continued to know very little. A huge personal oversight. 
This book was an excellent read. It is comprehensive and obviously meticulously researched when it comes to the epidemiology and financial aspects of AIDS. I had no idea of the parallels that could be drawn between the way AIDS was handled by the US and Reagan and the way Covid was handled by Trump. Handled in that it was allowed to run rampant with little intervention to protect people by the federal government. 
My criticism is that the author focused very little of his writing on how AIDS affected communities of color in the '80s, focusing instead on the white community. 
It also would have been instructive to be able to learn more about the front-line activists that did the vast majority of the work to make changes in policy and safety.
Overall, if willing to make the time investment (it's a little over 600 pages), this is a well-done public health history book to read and learn from.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Violence, Medical content, and Homophobia