Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Everything (Randy Shilts thinks) you need to know about the history of AIDS from 1980-1985.

And the Band Played On
By Randy Shilts
1987
St. Martin's Press

Documenting the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, Randy Shilts’ And the Band Played On is an extensive collection of personal accounts, scientific reports, community history, and political movements. Shilts was a journalist in San Francisco when the AIDS epidemic began and used much of his research for the San Francisco Chronicle for the material of this book. Weaving the personal emotions of gay and lesbian activists with the hard-nosed facts of scientists (which so often seem to be tainted by personal agendas and ambitions), this work of nonfiction is a startling revelation of the individual struggles, group clashes, government bungling, and management disasters of possibly the most disastrous health crisis in American history.

Though effective and convincing, Shilts’ work is incredibly long. Detailing the lives and events of many individuals, Shilts makes many of the same points over and over again. Perhaps he goes to such great lengths because the AIDS epidemic was ignored by so many government officials and members of society for so long, but at 600 pages plus, it is an extensive work that is difficult to trudge through at times. On the other hand, in hundreds of interviews and through research with many groups, Shilts reveals a nearly comprehensive story of how the AIDS virus came to be discovered and the horrible ways in which its most vulnerable victims were marginalized by the Regean administration, funding for research was withheld, and the suffering and indignity that accompanied such a massive loss of life across the globe.