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Title: And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Shilts ISBN: 0-312-24135-6 Publisher: Stonewall Inn Editions Pub. Date: 01 April, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.67 (42 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Heartbreaking
Comment: I still remember a powerful first experience with this book. Even the title conjured up a reaction as it initially reminded me of musicians playing on a sinking Titanic, and both stories (that of the Titanic disaster and unbelievable ignorance, denial and embarrasment that took AIDS from outbreak to epidemic to catastrophe) bring about the same sort of sinking feeling.
Shilts' truly extraordinary book is one of the most incredibly detailed accounts that I have ever read...on any topic, and many of these details are very upsetting but sadly not surprising. The stories of these people, their suffering, the humanity (as well as its staggering absence in many cases) will make many a reader angry. The book has left me with a lot of contempt and pity, not for victims or the pioneers in, but for those in power at the time, who are now directly responsible for the state of the AIDS epidemic today. I hesitate to call them murderers as none of the powers that be would sully themselves by even saying the word "AIDS" in public. Manslaughter, however, is a word that went through my thoughts more than once. What Shilts managed to make perfectly clear is that victims were infected with AIDS and the disease was allowed to spread because the little information that was known was swept under the carpet, particularly a rather posh rug in a genteel drawing room of a grand Washington house (I don't even want to get started on the Reagans). I imagine that "And the Band Played ON" will go down in history as the text book for the AIDS story. The story itself may quite well end up as not only the great legacy of the Conservative Governments of the 1980's, but also the greatest single miscarriage of humanity against itself. The book is a heartbreaking history of a mishap not unlike that of the Titanic, the only difference being that this ship was not only allowed, but encouraged to sink.
Rating: 5
Summary: Haunting history of AIDS and prejudice in science community.
Comment: This book is probably one of the most poignant histories that I have ever or will ever read. It has been almost fifteen yearrs since Randy Shilts published this book, yet it still pertains and is vitally relevant to us today. That Shilts is dead from the very virus he talks about in this book makes its words all the more distressing. Because of the prevailing attitudes of society and the medical community, HIV was virtually ignored when it came on the scene in 1981, and because of this fatal decision by politicians and scientists to pay little heed to a plague which seemed to be only affecting one small and unimportant population, many have died. The story of the mistakes made and the stupid things that people said and did is a parable which needs to be retaught over and over again. Perhaps because Shilts was so intimately involved in this crisis it gave him the impetus to describe so eloquently this period of time and the people involved. I think this book should be required reading for medical personnel, for would be science researchers, and for politicians. It is extremely important that we never let perceptions of others color our compassion or our science, or ultimately we as a society will pay the price. The legacy which Randy Shilts left behind is in this powerful book. Karen Sadler, Science education, University of Pittsburgh
Rating: 2
Summary: Extremely biased political agenda spoils the book
Comment: This is an engrossing narrative, which unfortunately is completely undermined by the author's shrill political carping. Before you read this book, you should understand that Mr. Shilts was an extreme left wing homosexual activist who was infected with AIDS and had a corresponding political agenda to promote. This doesn't make him a bad person or a bad author - but it does call the objectivity of his book into question. Reading this book for entertainment value is one thing, but relying on it for factual history of the AIDS epidemic is like trusting Dick Cheney to write an objective history of the Bush administration.
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Title:And the Band Played On ASIN: B00005AQMJ Publisher: Hbo Studios Pub. Date: 01 June, 2004 List Price(USD): $14.97 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $12.28 |
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Title: The River : A Journey to the Source of HIV and AIDS by Edward Hooper ISBN: 0316371378 Publisher: Back Bay Books Pub. Date: 01 December, 2000 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: DEADLY FEASTS: Tracking The Secrets Of A Terrifying New Plague by Richard Rhodes ISBN: 0684844257 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 01 May, 1998 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk (Stonewall Inn Editions (Paperback)) by Randy Shilts ISBN: 0312019009 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 01 April, 1988 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Encyclopedia of AIDS: A Social, Political, Cultural, and Scientific Record of the HIV Epidemic (Penguin Reference) by Raymond A. Smith ISBN: 0140514864 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 03 April, 2001 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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