Product Description
Upon it's first publication twenty years ago, And The Band Played on was quickly recognized as a masterpiece of investigatve reporting. An international bestseller, a nominee for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and made into a critically acclaimed movie, Shilts' expose revealed why AIDS was allowed to spread unchecked during the early 80's while the most trusted institutions ignored or denied the threat. One of the few true modern classics, it changed and framed how AIDS was discussed in the following years. Now republished in a special 20th Anniversary edition, And the Band Played On remains one of the essential books of our time.

Amazon.com Review
In the first major book on AIDS, San Francisco Chronicle reporter Randy Shilts examines the making of an epidemic. Shilts researched and reported the book exhaustively, chronicling almost day-by-day the first five years of AIDS. His work is critical of the medical and scientific communities' initial response and particularly harsh on the Reagan Administration, who he claims cut funding, ignored calls for action and deliberately misled Congress. Shilts doesn't stop there, wondering why more people in the gay community, the mass media and the country at large didn't stand up in anger more quickly. The AIDS pandemic is one of the most striking developments of the late 20th century and this is the definitive story of its beginnings.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 76 reviews)

Had to put it down. by rocketboy (Baltimore, MD)

3 Stars
September 12, 2009
I am a 42--year-old gay male who has been out for twenty-three years. I just got around to reading this book this past summer. I'd read a sample of it online and it caught my eye. I really wanted to like because I know what an important work it is. Unfortunately I had to put it down after about two hundred pages. I don't know why exactly--Mr. Shilts certainly could write. I don't know, I just lost interest in it. I stopped forcing myself to finish books because they were "important" or "classic" a long time ago.

Engaging book by K H (Colorado)

5 Stars
August 18, 2009
My opinion might be a bit biased, since I am the type of person who finds epidemiology and public health facinating. That being said, this book does a wonderfull job of discribing the events and people involved in the AIDS epidemic. The book is set up chronologically, so the reader gets a sense of how disconnected the efforts were to figure out the cause of the disease.

history of our times by Julia Newbould (Sydney, NSW Australia)

4 Stars
April 18, 2009
This was a book that had to be written. It also had to be written by Randy Shilts. It's a fantastic book and a history come alive for those who don't remember the dark days of the beginning of AIDS. I was led to this book a second time after reading The Mayor of Castro Street - the inspiration of the movie Milk. The first time I read And The Band Played On was when it was first published. I read it to get a better idea of what had happened, what were the facts of the onset of the plague and how was the community really affected. This time I was able to read it with more distance and it was a brilliant history and evoked a time long gone. It was a perfect follow on from The Mayor of Castro Street and the two are a briliant history of the times, complete with the characters that made the community what is was. For anyone under 40 the book will give a history of something they are totally unfamiliar with. For those over, it will be a rich reminder.

And the Band Played on by Randy shilts by Wanda H. Shirley

4 Stars
February 07, 2009
I was a very informable book We have added it to our school library for students to read.

Review: And The Band Played On... by Alexandra E. Dieck (Ann Arbor, Michigan)

4 Stars
February 02, 2009
This product shipped rather quickly and when it arrived, it was in exactly the shape that I had thought it would be. Good purchase for the wonderful price.

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

	And the Band Played On Starring: Matthew Modine, Alan Alda, Patrick Bauchau, Nathalie Baye, Christian Clemenson Directed By: Roger Spottiswoode THIS IS THE STORY OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE DISEASE WE NOW KNOW AS AIDS. AN UNFORGETTABLE TALE OF SCIENTIFIC STRUGGLE, CORRUPTION, DECEIT, TRAGEDY & TRIUMPH. DVD FEATURES NOT LISTED.
	Deadly Feasts: The "Prion" Controversy and the Public's Health by Richard Rhodes (Author) In this brilliant and gripping medical detective story. Richard Rhodes follows virus hunters on three continents as they track the emergence of a deadly new brain disease that first kills cannibals in New Guinea, then cattle and young people in Britain and France -- and that has already been traced to food animals in the United States. In a new Afterword for the paperback, Rhodes reports the latest U.S. and worldwide developments of a burgeoning global threat.
	The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk by Randy Shilts (Author) Known as “The Mayor of Castro Street” even before he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Harvey Milk’s personal life, public career, and final assassination reflect the dramatic emergence of the gay community as a political power in America. It is a story full of personal tragedies and political intrigues, assassinations at City Hall, massive riots in the streets, the miscarriage of justice, and the consolidation of gay power and gay hope. Harvey Milk has been...
	The Epidemic: A Global History of AIDS by Jonathan Engel (Author) From the Castro bathhouses to AZT and the denial of AIDS in South Africa, this sweeping look at AIDS covers the epidemic from all angles and across the world. Engel seamlessly weaves together science, politics, and culture, writing with an even hand—noting the excesses of the more radical edges of the ACT UP movement as well as the conservative religious leaders who thought AIDS victims deserved what they got. The story of AIDS is one of the most compelling human dramas of our...
	Faggots by Larry Kramer (Author), Reynolds Price (Foreword) Larry Kramer's Faggots has been in print since its original publication in 1978 and has become one of the best-selling novels about gay life ever written. The book is a fierce satire of the gay ghetto and a touching story of one man's desperate search for love there, and reading it today is a fascinating look at how much, and how little, has changed.