And the Band Played On
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £4.40
Trade in And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £4.40, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Plus, get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
The pre-eminent chronicler of gay life. --The New York Times
Rivals in power and intensity, and in the brilliance of its reporting and writing, Truman Capote s IN COLD BLOOD. --The Boston Globe
A heroic work of journalism on what must rank as one of the foremost catastrophes of modern history. --New York Times
Rivals in power and intensity, and in the brilliance of its reporting and writing, Truman Capote s IN COLD BLOOD. --The Boston Globe
A heroic work of journalism on what must rank as one of the foremost catastrophes of modern history. --New York Times
Product Description
A masterpiece of investigative reporting, And the Band Played On is the definitive history of the spread of AIDS throughout the USA in the 1980 s. Randy Shilts was employed by the The San Francisco Chronicle to cover gay issues in 1981, the year AIDS came to international attention, and from 1982 Shilts devoted himself to covering the story of the disease and its medical, social and political implications. Shilts asks: how was this epidemic allowed to spread so far before it was taken seriously? Extensively researched, weaving together the personal stories of those in the gay community and the medical and political establishments with political and social reporting, he exposes how AIDS was ignored, or denied, as a threat by many national institutions. And the Band Played On shows that the greatest health crisis of the twentieth-century spread wildly as the Federal government put its budget ahead of public health while scientists were often more concerned with maintaining their prestige than saving lives.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
"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 taking of multiple sexual partners, had anything to do with the spread of the disease, and saw any restrictions placed upon them as a breach of their human rights.
Still people were dying.
Then the scientists started to play politics with the research, the French at the Pasteur Institute who discovered the virus, were disbelieved until Dr Robert Gallo could confirm their work in the US.
A year was wasted, and still people were dying.
The virus contaminated the blood supply.
Still there was denial.
Haemophiliacs were dying, patients were contracting AIDS from operative transfusions.
Still the wrangling went on.
For money, for kudos, for sexual freedom, for the hope of a Nobel Prize.
And all the while, people died.
Now, particularly in Africa, people are dying in their millions, this particular genie can never be put back into the bottle.
The band played on.................
"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 taking of multiple sexual partners, had anything to do with the spread of the disease, and saw any restrictions placed upon them as a breach of their human rights.
Still people were dying.
Then the scientists started to play politics with the research, the French at the Pasteur Institute who discovered the virus, were disbelieved until Dr Robert Gallo could confirm their work in the US.
A year was wasted, and still people were dying.
The virus contaminated the blood supply.
Still there was denial.
Haemophiliacs were dying, patients were contracting AIDS from operative transfusions.
Still the wrangling went on.
For money, for kudos, for sexual freedom, for the hope of a Nobel Prize.
And all the while, people died.
Now, particularly in Africa, people are dying in their millions, this particular genie can never be put back into the bottle.
The band played on.................
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I read this book as it was recommended as a useful insight into the history of the AIDS epidemic and it's links to the gay community. It, however, is much more. As a nurse I have an obvious interest in the health aspect but politically and socially this is possibly one of the most important books written on a global epidemic. Randy Shilts uses all his journalistic nouse to conjur a piece by piece account which held me from the first page to the last and offers an insight into a piece of our history which should not have been allowed to happen
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I enjoyed Shilt's book much more than I did the film. Although he can be criticised by professional historians from many angles, he does approach the issue of disease and American society from a perspective too long absent in medical history works. Shilts attempts to bring the patient into the history of AIDS continually. In fact, the best passages in the book are about the poeple who lived outside of the medical and political spotlights. Hollywood may have missed the point, but you can still read the book.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
a must for HIV doctors with an interest in history
Inteersting impression on the history of HIV in Europe and the United States, and all the political issues around dealing with this epidemic, almost unbelievable from today's point... Read more
Published 12 months ago by christine
And The Band Played On A Gripping and insightful book
After seeing the DVD of the film and throughly enjoying it. I wanted to read the book,it is a lot better than the film. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Daniel Hefferland
Thorough
This is a really thorough book. Charts the rise of AIDS with immaculate attention to detail and extensive research. Read more
Published on 2 Feb 2006 by Nbk
Essential
The beauty of this book is that you feel like you're there, living through one of the most significant periods of recent history. Read more
Published on 29 Feb 2004 by Kasper Simon
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Health, Family & Lifestyle > Medical & Healthcare Practitioners > Internal Medicine > Diseases & Disorders > Infectious & Contagious Diseases > HIV - AIDS
- Books > History > Social & Economic History > Health & Welfare
- Books > Science & Nature > Medicine > Diseases & Disorders > Infectious & Contagious Diseases > HIV-AIDS
- Books > Scientific, Technical & Medical > Medicine & Nursing > Medical Sciences A-Z > Diseases & Disorders > HIV-AIDS
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Government & Politics
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
