The Impact of AIDS: A Look at the Politics, People, and Epidemic of the 1980s Through the Lens of "And the Band Played On"

Amazon Customer: Very eye opening. I had a very hard time putting it down. One of the best books I've ever read. I was so pissed that the government basically drug their feet on the epidemic.

United States on Oct 01, 2023

Kids Book Fan: This was a good book, carefully composed, and easy to read. It shines a light on the political, financial, and needless delay in a concise approach to treatment.

I wish the book had covered Anthony Fauci and his major role in the medical corruption why AIDS was allowed to flourish, in favour of Big Pharma agendas.

I'd recommend this book. I'd also recommend The Real Anthony Fauci by Robert F Kenndy Jr as a follow up.

United Kingdom on Jul 07, 2023

Amazon Customer: Having been cursed with the attention span of a newt, l doubted l could make my way through such a lengthy tome. I was wrong.

This book is not written, it is composed like the most beautiful symphony. The perfect mix of micro personal stories and macro national politics.

A truly beautiful piece of work. I genuinely cannot recommend it enough.

United Kingdom on Jun 07, 2023

c bakewell: This is not a book for those who need an Introduction to the Aids epidemic. At 600 pages, I found myself quite overwhelmed particularly as I’m not from the States - their policies and politics are so new to me.
However, the author does look at all those involved without favour ( as a Gay man with HIV, he doesn’t pretend that such a sizeable USA group were sensible particularly when there was such little understanding and help)
Readers should note that Gaeten Dugas was also a victim and not necessarily the first person to infect as many people as first thought. Mr Shilts was dead shortly after publication so he could not amend his theory

United Kingdom on May 30, 2023

Carly: It was a great read and so interesting. I could barely put it down. I know some points have been argued but it’s a still a good book.

Australia on Apr 05, 2023

Scott J Pearson: “Those ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it.”

“The primary problems we now face are not scientific problems but social problems involving science.”

Such statements certainly provide an impetus to read this classic about the early history of AIDS in America. Though this book is over thirty years old, its meticulous research still communicates how human nature often denies diseased persons respect, compassion, and the resources necessary to recover. Such was certainly true in the 1980s with HIV/AIDS when the ball was dropped by almost everyone – politicians, doctors, scientists, activists, those with a disease, those afraid of a disease, the gay community, and the business community, to list a few.

Reading this in an era of a new global pandemic (COVID), I am struck by the emotions that AIDS evoked during the 1980s and how those same emotions are reflected in encounters with a new disease. Denial, bargaining, pride, and greed are all common, human responses when encountering deadly threats. In this book, Shilts brings to life how those factors played into the advent of AIDS. He educates readers not just about HIV but about social responses to...

United States on Aug 06, 2021

Adam D. Dunn: “I cannot seem to let go of every grain of detail, for each at some moment seems so important that I must scoop it up and slither it into my own voluminous vomit-out. The world must know everything!”
- The American People: Search for My Heart (Larry Kramer)

I wanted to like this book more. There are so many five-star reviews for this book and I get that it is a product of the time period it was written but it seems fitting with this 20th Anniversary edition to also look at the book in its current context and for me there was so much blame in the book it was hard to get the story. When everyone is to blame, is anyone to blame?

“In San Francisco, Bill Kraus attributed the reports of the new diseases to anti-gay bias in the press. Reporters never talked about the constructive things the gay community did, he thought, but let a few people get sick and they’re all over it.”

“The Gay Men’s Health Crisis in New York had put the accumulated wisdom of homosexual physicians in one phrase: “Have as much sex as you want, but with fewer people and HEALTHY people.””

At a recent meeting of my gay book club we read a book concerning the Holocaust...

United States on May 12, 2015

Janjo: "And The Band Played On" is a book I missed when it first came out over twenty years ago. I read Randy Shilts "The Mayor of Castro Street" after having become intrigued by the life of "Harvey Milk" since seeing the excellent Sean Penn film "Milk" at the beginning of the year, and I was anxious to read anything else that he had written.
"And The Band Played On," is a reference to the musicians on the Titanic, who reputedly kept playing as the ship sank.
The book details how this was exactly the way the authorities behaved while people in their thousands were dying from AIDS.
This new disease, which in its early stages, was unknown to science, devastated the lives of not just the sufferers, but also of those that loved them.
As it was mostly gay men, and intravenous drug users who were affected,(not REAL people, not people who mattered), little money was found for research, and the scientists involved had to make do and mend, in the most outrageous way.
The whole subject was considered embarrasing, one not to be talked about, and still people were dying. Some members of the gay community were reluctant to face up to the fact that their behavior in "bath houses," the...

United Kingdom on Aug 27, 2009