A review by mkcd
And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic, by Randy Shilts
4.0
This book is fantastic, and it's also a complete trip to read it in the middle of a pandemic where some of the same trends (delay, lack of information, lack of preparedness) are evident (though there's not the layer of the said agent of the pandemic disproportionately affecting a very specific group this time).
I found myself looking for events that had not happened yet...because this was published in the late-eighties. It's heartening to see the start of how far we've come...and depressing to see how we haven't.
Also, Reagan was just -terrible-. Everyone knew, but truly. Holy crap.
While this book makes great work of telling the stories of people involved--from the first AIDS victims, to the researchers, doctors, lawmakers, community advocates, etc.-- it gets mired in budget numbers that it never brings down past the level of abstraction. (And the Patient Zero is Gaetan Dugas theory has long since been addressed as misleading, at best.)
I found myself looking for events that had not happened yet...because this was published in the late-eighties. It's heartening to see the start of how far we've come...and depressing to see how we haven't.
Also, Reagan was just -terrible-. Everyone knew, but truly. Holy crap.
While this book makes great work of telling the stories of people involved--from the first AIDS victims, to the researchers, doctors, lawmakers, community advocates, etc.-- it gets mired in budget numbers that it never brings down past the level of abstraction. (And the Patient Zero is Gaetan Dugas theory has long since been addressed as misleading, at best.)