Customer Reviews

History of AIDS

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Grmek, a Serbian physician and naturalized French citizen, gives us a broad overview of Aids and how it has shaped the world since its appearance in 1981. The book first examines the early years of the epidemic and then looks at issues created by the new virus. Most of what one has heard about the disease, from stories of Soviet propaganda to popular misconceptions, is touched upon in the book at one place or another. Considerable length is devoted to the question of when and where Aids began, a matter of interest to almost everyone who might want to read this work.

I have two problems with this book. First of all, while comprehensive, it skips too quickly from topic to topic and gives too little detail about some important matters. Secondly, it is quite out of date by now. Scientific progress, not to mention the Aids virus itself, is changing rapidly and so Grmek might be advised to put out an updated edition

I picked up this book from my history professor's syllabus for another class. It gives the reader a wonderful background to the history of AIDS. While it is a little outdated now, there's value in it. It shows us, in the present, how far we have come since its publishing and how far we have yet to go in the public understanding and acceptance of those afflicted with this disease. The terminology is not so difficult as to bog down a reader. With my busy schedule, it usually takes me a month to get through a book but I havent been able to put this one down. I highly recommend it to those looking to learn something valuable from a book.

I would like to repeat the praise for Dr. Mirko D. Grmek's "History of AIDS." This book is truly a "page-turner," and a worthy one. The translators also deserve applause for turning the original French into English prose that is both highly accessible and technically correct in its treatment of medical science.

I must, however, disagree with other reviewers who state that this book is "out of date." While scientific research has made many strides since the volume's publication, Grmek addresses himself not so much to the science of HIV and AIDS as to the early history of this science, and the history of the epidemic. In fact, it is remarkable--and tellingly so for reasonably objective accounts such as Grmek's--how little our understanding of this history has changed since 1990. This, despite various highly publicized propaganda campaigns that have sought to alter the public perception of AIDS: dissident activist John Lauritsen's vehement revisionist portrayals of the early epidemic and the first drug trials, or journalist John Crewdson's hit pieces painting early HIV researcher Bob Gallo as a shrewdly manipulative liar.

Grmek, an eminently qualified commentator with no apparent axe to grind, provides a fine, detailed, and thoroughly-referenced summary of HIV and AIDS in the 1980s, spiced throughout with illustrative anecdote and adorned with illuminating quotes at the start of each chapter. This book is an excellent resource AND a good read.