And the Band Played On

It's take me almost a month, but I finally finished And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts. Originally published in 1987, And the Band Played On is a non-fiction account of the founding of AIDS and the HIV virus. Shlits, who reported for the San Francisco Chronicle, tells the story of the discovery of AIDS through people infected by the disease. He intersperses the individual narratives with the politics and science involved in the founding of AIDS. (If you've read/watched any movies about Harvey Milk, many of the characters in the book will be familiar. For example, Bill Kraus and Cleve Jones, both very involved with San Francisco politics, are characters.)

As the Band Played On is an incredibly informative read and very interesting. It's dense at times, although Shilts does a good job at explaining the political jargon. Having not yet been born when AIDS was discovered, I was surprised to read how little media coverage AIDS received. I also realized how little I know about the gay liberation movement of the '70s. Today, discrimination against gays comes in the form of banning same-sex marriage or in issues related to adoption. In the late '70s and early '80s, discrimination against gays came in the form of ignoring a disease that was killing people!

It's truly amazing how far we've come in fighting AIDS. I'm going to try to find a book that chronicles the progression of AIDS research through the late '80s and '90s. With the book ending in 1987, it seems like there is so much of this story to tell.

Have any of your read And the Band Played On or seen the movie? What did you think?

A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present

I'd like to recommend Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. The book covers major moments in American history starting from 1492 (Christopher Columbus's discovery of America, The First and Second World Wars, Vietnam, etc). The version I read ends in the 1970s, but there's an updated version that goes through the 1990s. Zinn writes about hisorical events from the perspective of how they affected everyday people. For example, when he writes about Columbus, he focuses more on the Native Americans, showing how they struggled and failed to hold to their land. He also argues that it's the American people who've shaped the laws of the country rather than political leaders. He shows how working-class people played a pivitol role in ensuring that the government passed Civil Rights, Women's Rights and Worker's laws amongst a host of other important legislation. I like Zinn's writing style a lot; it's clear and simple, not stuffy at all. Really enjoyed the book and discovering new things I was unaware of in our history.