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And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic

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Randy Shilts masterpiece, "And The Band Played On", reads like a detective story; from the discovery of an unusual new organism that was killing a few people slowly and inexorably in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and multiplied exponentially underground until it exploded into the number one health catastrophe on the planet.

The fact that AIDS at first took its heaviest toll among gay men, and then among intravenous drug users, guaranteed that its early victims would become outcasts. The AIDS panic seems unbelievable in retrospect but was all too real in the 80s; people were forced off their jobs, children were barred from schools, and anyone who belonged to the "4-H club" (homosexuals, hard-drug users, hemophiliacs, and -- incredibly -- Haitians) were treated like pariahs. The secrecy and denial in dealing with the crisis helped it to spread unabated.

Shilts pulls no punches in writing this book. He is equally angry at the Reagan administration which preached pious platitudes while withholding desperately needed funds for medical research; the radical gay community which refused to acknowledge its own responsibility for the sexually promiscuous behavior that helped spread the disease like wildfire, and those in the medical community who played grandstanding politics and plain old-fashioned spite while patients were dying all around them. And then of course there was the media, which treated this puzzling, terrifying new disease -- which for two years after its discovery didn't even have a name -- as something the "general public" didn't have to be concerned about, until heterosexual men and women began to be infected.

But there were also the heroes -- the physicians who devoted their days and nights to treating their patients, gay men like Larry Kramer who refused to let the gay community sweep the problem under the rug, Rock Hudson, whose up-front candor and admission of his illness shocked the American public and helped to bring AIDS out of the closet once and for all, and C. Everett Koop, Reagan's Surgeon General, who refused to play politics and demonstrated the leadership his boss lacked in his common-sense and compassionate approach to meeting the crisis, to the horror of his right-wing constituency.

Shilts wrote his story with such compelling urgency that it wraps the reader up like a whodunit you don't want to put down. One shares his disgust at the doctors who cared more about their own self-promotion than about their patients; the right-wing politicians who treated the victims of a devastating and deadly disease as if they were sinners who had earned the wrath of God; the gay men who didn't care how many people they infected as long as they could enjoy the promiscuous atmosphere of the bath houses, and most incredibly, the for-profit blood banks, which refused to admit their product was carrying a deadly virus and fought against blood testing for three years while the number of people who died from transfusions of infected blood grew by the thousands. And in a heartbreaking coda to this story, Shilts deliberately put off having his own blood tested while he was writing this book because he didn't want his judgement biased if he turned out to be HIV positive. It was only after he finished the book that he learned that he was infected with the virus that had killed so many and in a few years would also kill him.

Shilts' death from AIDS was a tragedy, but he left us this magnificent book as his legacy. After reading his book, we are the richer and the wiser for his information, his insight and his understanding.

Judy Lind

I read this book several years ago, and the effect of that reading is still making an impact on my life.

Randy Shilts blends science, sexuality, politics and humanity into a gripping and emotion-provoking story detailing the rise of the AIDS Epidemic. By drawing the readers into the lives of individuals and communities at the core of the epidemic, Shilts gives them the opportunity to see how the epidemic developed and spread, and the ways in which it was allowed to spread further, thru apathy, inaction, ignorance (both deliberate and not), fear, and even egotism.

When I listen to the news in today's world, and I hear accounts of the post-9/11 Anthrax scares, or the recent pneumonia illness that has now affected some 1,500 people -- my heart aches. Not to discount the reality of these illnesses, but all I can remember is how angered and saddened I felt as I read "And the Band Played On" and realized that hundreds of thousands of people were infected before the word AIDS was ever mentioned in the media. I was a sophmore in college when I first remember hearing about AIDS. That was in 1987. How many people had died from the disease before I even knew what it was????

I feel everyone should read this book. It doesn't just apply to people in high-risk populations. I happen to be a young heterosexual female, and this book made such an impression on me, that last summer, I found myself joining a 350-mile bike marathon to raise money and awareness for people living with HIV and AIDS. When people asked me why I was doing the ride, I told them about "And the Band Played On."

Randy Shilts' book is haunting and most of all, REAL. The only bad thing is that the book ends -- AIDS doesn't.

I'm sure most people are familiar with the story but just as very brief background Randy Shilts was a reporter at the epicenter of the AIDS crisis when it first began. When his paper assigned him to cover the story on a regular basis (the only paper in the country to do so), he gained access to an vast wealth of material and a unique perspective-one that for many years went largely unreported by most of the media until the death of Rock Hudson changed everything. Shilts discovered he himself was HIV positive after he finished the book; he had asked his doctor not to reveal the test results to him until then. He passed way in 1994. His work to alert his own community on the coming health crisis often made him a pariah within it.

This is an amazing history of how the virus took off in America and an insight into why it remained so under-reported for so long. The story involves some very brave patients, some very irresponsible ones, incredibly dedicated medical professionals, major bungling by our government and the blood industry-some of it intentional and some paths paved with good intentions, and the mixed, frustrating reaction of the gay community itself. Shilts doesn't write completely without bias-he calls the decision of the CDC to release patient names to an NYC bloodbank "incredibly stupid" but who wouldn't agree with him on that point? Also, Shilt's fury at certain members of the Reagan administration and Reagan himself is palpable. Once again though, who wouldn't agree with him once the story has been unfolded. His anger is not limited just to the government nor is this just an anti-Republican screed-he praises Orrin Hatch and Everett Koop while bitterly recalling the inaction of Ed Koch's administration in New York. Gay leaders also are not always portrayed in a flattering light. For all of that though, Shilts struggles to be fair and largely is successful.

This book may look daunting, both because of it's subject matter and it's length (clocking in around 600 pages.) However it is incredibly worth your time and written so well that you'll make surprisingly short work of it. Even if you aren't interested in AIDS per se, the story of how our government responded to this crisis (or, rather, largely failed to) should and will frighten you. An incredible call to action and snapshot of a moment in time and place that might otherwise have been forgotten. And that would be a tragedy.

In 50 years time when the HIV virus has long past its notoriety and is as treatable as the common cold historians will look back at this period of medical history and the defining chronicle of that time will be laid out in the pages of this book.From beginning to end the many firsthand accounts reveal in clinical detail what was happening at the onset of this plague not only in the gay community but in the wider world at large.The fear the panic the hysteria in the early 80's is almost palpable.That so many health professionals in the U.S. should act in such an unprofessional way is inconceivable,but it happened.There were fortunately a few unsung heroes in those early days:Dr Mary Guinan,Dr Tony Fauci,Larry Kramer from ACTUP,the staffs of the CDC & NHI and many others.There is also occasionally a villain.The less said about Dr Paul Gallo the better.That Shilt's story put a human face to all the statistics was what initially attracted me to his work.He writes a readable tome not loaded down with minutiae.It is a one-man protest against the ignorance of the american public and a staunch attempt to open their eyes.Sadly 20 years after it all began and we are only just starting to win the fight against the virus Randy Shilts is no longer with us having succumbed a few years ago to the disease he knew so much about and wanted so much to beat...He was one of the first of the anti-HIV warriors and for that alone we should mourn his passing. Vaya con dios.

I read this book in 1991 after caring for a brother who died from AIDS. When he was alive and we were together we didn't know a thing about this virus except what it was doing to our lives. About five years after his time was up a friend gave me a copy of The Band Played On. It changed my life forever. This book might be the most important, profound and historical piece of journalism written in our time. This book should be required reading for future generations. Tracing the onslaught of the virus from patient zero to Rock Hudson. Randy Shilts leaves no one unscathed in our failed immediate response to the greatest health risk of our lifetime. There's blame and accountability for everyone politicians, gay community, doctors, society but this book is not about blame and pointing fingers. It is ultimately about a society facing it's ugly little secrets and coming to grips about what seperates us is maybe not as important as what unites us. If and when we ever reach the top of the mountain and can look down at what this virus has wrought on us and we can confidently say 'never again', each man and woman will have to look at their own soul's and search inside of themselves for the answer to the following question. Did I do enough during the greatest health plague of our times to make a difference? Randy Shilts certainly has by writing the most detailed, historical look at the early days of the AIDS crisis. By reading this book I was inspired to do my share. God bless us.

And the Band Played On is an act of phenomenal research and writing, and a very frightening book on many levels because of the political wrangling, political bumbling, and political disregard for a medical crisis which cost the lives of so many, the scientific in-fighting which slowed medical break throughs and sacrificed lives, and the insanity of national agencies which were supposed to be saving lives, but which in this case knowingly risked the lives of many either because they didn't want to do the work, didn't want to spend the money, or didn't want to anger certain political groups. Gay men were deemed to be utterly dispensable by so many.

It's the sign of a good book when it brings out strong emotions. This book provoked in me anger, rage, confusion, compassion, sadness, and tears. I wish I could thank all those, like Don Francis, Dr. Michael Gottlieb, Dr. Selma Dritz, Marc Conant, Dr. Dale Lawrence, Paul Volberding, and Dr. Arye Rubenstein, who tried so hard, against such overwhelming odds, to save lives quickly. I would also chastise President Ronald Reagan and Merve Silverman and give Margaret Heckler and Bob Gallo a piece of my mind -- the skunks!

I am thankful that there are politicians like Orrin Hatch and people behind the scenes like Bill Kraus and Cleve Jones. Though he was woefully slow in responding I'm grateful for the response of C. Everett Koop and that once having made his stand he never wavered and took it to the media wherever he could.

Randy Shilts did an excellent job of showing the culture in the United States and France and the politics in the medical and scientific communities and the political posture and arena during the 1980s. He also humanized the crisis by following many of the patients from onset of medical problems to death (Enno Poersch, Gary Walsh, Frances Borchelt, Bill Kraus, and Gaetan Dugas) and by following the doctors and scientists in their fight to discover the properties of this terrible disease and conquer it. It was enlightening and helpful to have the book structured as a time line.

The amount and variety of research done for this book is astounding, requiring Shilts to conduct hundreds of interviews and read millions of pages of articles and medical material. In reading this book, my education has been enhanced and my life is more full and forever changed.

It is a great tragedy that AIDS killed Randy Shilts as it had killed so many other innocents, and that as I write this there is still no cure for AIDS. As far as I can tell, it is again being largely ignored by governments and the medical community. Where will the next Randy Shilts, Bill Kraus, and Dr. Gottlieb and the other saviors come from--and will they come soon enough?

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.

I read this as background for a thesis paper on journalism on HIV; I didn't realize quite what I was getting into with this one.

It may be the greatest non ficton books I've ever read, an utterly moving and compelling account of the epidemic and response. Shilts makes a high drama out of it; everything from the opening quote and the fonts makes the book as tragically poetic as it is informative and shocking.

Based on my work, I'd say it's also really a gold standard for journalism on HIV. He may have his personal feelings about it, but all they inspired him to do is question authority and delve deeper. He's very scrupulous about his sources and his research.

If you only ever read one book on the HIV epidemic, make it this one.

Shilts' great book shows us how much of the AIDS related suffering of the last twenty years could so easily have been avoided. The book opens with the July 4th 1976 bicentennial celebration of American independence and closes with the death of Hollywood star Rock Hudson, whose passing garnered the necessary oxygen of publicity that all the thousands of previous AIDS casualties could not.

In between, the book revolves around the hedonistic community of San Francisco's Castro Street area and brings us an amazing array of villains, victims and plain heroes. The villains include the bathhouse owners, who used America's First Amendment to keep their businesses open even as it was blatantly obvious that they were a major conduit for the spread of the virus; Dr. Bob Gallo of America's National Cancer Institute, who put his own prestige ahead of everything else, normal scientific and academic ethics included; and the Reagan administration, which did as little as politically possible to stem the burgeoning plague that blighted America during those years.

Because the air bridges between Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco helped spread the virus at breakneck speed, Shilts also introduces us to Gaetan Dugas, the Canadian air line steward, who is credited with infecting many of America's earliest victims. Shilts paints him as half victim and half villain. Dugas, he shows, went from being the pretty boy everybody in Castro Street wanted to bed to being the terminal AIDS case they all eventually feared.

Rock Hudson, Liberace and other closet gays are likewise painted as half villains and half victims. Michael Foucault, the fashionable French philosopher, must rank with the vilest villains; he hid his diagnosis from everyone, even his devoted lover. So much for that pompous philosopher and philanderer!

But even in the blighted world of AIDS, there were many heroes. These include the French scientists who discovered the HIV virus and, Gallo excepted, the American ones, who followed up all the early clues that eventually led to the discovery of the medications that can now tackle the illness. Many of these American heroes, Shilts shows, were penalized rather than praised by their universities for performing their singular services to mankind.

The bathhouse chain owners, who were more interested in profiting from the unbridled orgies that gave them their profits than in stemming AIDS, were not the only amplifiers during the crucial early years. The blood banks, by refusing to screen blood, also contributed to the death of thousands of Americans. The Reagan administration's preoccupation with Central America and the Soviet Union was also a godsend to the virus.

And, as the band played on, AIDS wormed its way through America's marginalized communities of hookers, hemophiliacs, heroin addicts, and Haitians. Gay activists, who tried to sound the alarm bells, were dismissed as sexual Nazis and theocrats by their confreres who wanted to party on in Castro Street's backroom bars and bathhouses, even though, as Shilts constantly reminds us, it meant almost certain death.

Shilts has sent us a powerful message that we ignore at our peril. AIDS means that hedonists can expect to die sooner rather than later. The world's legions of drug shooting hookers will remain major amplifiers for AIDS, hepatitis and related illnesses as long as their addiction continues. So too will other marginalized and uneducated people. So too, of course, will people like Robert Gallo, who put his own narrow agenda ahead of humanity's.

On the positive side, the book shows us that the villains are vastly outnumbered by the heroes, not the least of whom is Randy Shilts, who also finally succumbed to this great human calamity.

This book is absolutely heart-rending. The emotions one experiences reading through this documentation of the first responses to the AIDS virus are numerous, and as different as night and day. I was by turns hopeful that a happy ending was just around the corner, and frustrated beyond belief at the behavior of some of the people involved. It is appalling how little was done to combat the disease at first, simply because of prejudice and misunderstanding.
You will smile, you will cry, you will cheer, and you will get so mad you have to put the book down... only to pick it up five seconds later, because it is that good. Shilts' style of writing is engrossing as he ties in statistics and general information with the personal accounts of the many doctors and people who dealt (and deal) with the virus on a daily basis. The people he writes about have faces and emotions, and cannot be simply pushed into a list of anonymous beings unconnected with the reader. But be ready to have all of your own emotions tugged and stretched, because reading this book without an emotional reaction is impossible.
Reading this book was one of the best things I ever did; I cannot get it out of my head, which is,of course, the whole point.