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

by Randy Shilts

• ISBN13: 9780312241353
• ISBN10: 0312241356
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2000-04-09
• Publisher: Stonewall Inn Editions

Summary

By the time Rock Hudson's death in 1985 alerted all America to the danger of the AIDS epidemic, the disease had spread across the nation, killing thousands of people and emerging as the greatest health crisis of the 20th century. America faced a troubling question: What happened? How was this epidemic allowed to spread so far before it was taken seriously? In answering these questions, Shilts weaves weaves the disparate threads into a coherent story, pinning down every evasion and contradiction at the highest levels of the medical, political, and media establishments. Shilts shows that the epidemic spread wildly because the federal government put budget ahead of the nation's welfare; health authorities placed political expediency before the public health; and scientists were often more concerned with international prestige than saving lives. Against this backdrop, Shilts tells the heroic stories of individuals in science and politics, public health and the gay community, who struggled to alert the nation to the enormity of the danger it faced. And the Band Played On is both a tribute to these heroic people and a stinging indictment of the institutions that failed the nation so badly.

Author Biography

Randy Shilts was born in 1951, in Davenport, Iowa. One of the first openly gay journalists hired at a major newspaper, he worked for the San Francisco Chronicle for thirteen years. He died of AIDS in 1994 at his home in the Sonoma County redwoods in California. He was the author of The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk (1982), And the Band Played On: Politics, People and the AIDS Epidemic (1987), and Conduct Unbecoming: Lesbians and Gays in the U.S. Military (1993). He also wrote extensively for many major newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, Newsweek, Esquire, The Los Angeles Times, and The Advocate. And the Band Played On was made into a docudrama that was broadcast on HBO in 1993.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xi
Dramatis Personae	xiii
The Bureaucracy	xvii
Prologue	xxi
PART I. BEHOLD, A PALE HORSE
The Feast of the Hearts	3	(8)
PART II. BEFORE/1980
Glory Days	11	(14)
Beaches of the Dispossessed	25	(9)
Foreshadowing	34	(8)
Freeze Frames	42	(11)
PART III. PAVING THE ROAD/1981
Critical Mass	53	(8)
Good Intentions	61	(9)
The Prettiest One	70	(10)
Ambush Poppers	80	(13)
Golf Courses of Science	93	(9)
Bad Moon Rising	102	(13)
PART IV. THE GATHERING DARKNESS/1982
Enemy Time	115	(13)
Patient Zero	128	(13)
Bicentennial Memories	141	(8)
Nightsweats	149	(11)
Too Much Blood	160	(9)
Entropy	169	(9)
Running on Empty	178	(7)
Forced Feeding	185	(11)
Dirty Secrets	196	(8)
Dancing in the Dark	204	(15)
PART V. BATTLE LINES/JANUARY--JUNE 1983
Let It Bleed	219	(8)
Midnight Confessions	227	(7)
Denial	234	(8)
Anger	242	(11)
The Big Enchilada	253	(10)
Turning Points	263	(15)
Only the Good	278	(10)
Priorities	288	(11)
Meanwhile	299	(15)
AIDSpeak Spoken Here	314	(10)
Star Quality	324	(15)
PART VI. RITUALS/JULY--DECEMBER 1983
Marathons	339	(10)
Just Another Day	349	(10)
Politics	359	(7)
Science	366	(8)
Public Health	374	(10)
Journalism	384	(10)
People	394	(11)
PART VII. LIGHTS & TUNNELS/1984
Prisoners	405	(8)
Bargaining	413	(10)
The Feast of the Hearts, Part II	423	(6)
Squeeze Play	429	(11)
Traitors	440	(10)
Political Science	450	(7)
Downbound Train	457	(9)
Republicans and Democrats	466	(11)
Embarrassed	477	(9)
Depression	486	(9)
The War	495	(12)
PART VIII. THE BUTCHER'S BILL/1985
Heterosexuals	507	(10)
Exiles	517	(11)
Reckoning	528	(11)
Exposed	539	(9)
Awakening	548	(13)
Acceptance	561	(11)
Endgame	572	(13)
PART IX. EPILOGUE/AFTER
Reunion	585	(17)
The Feast of the Hearts, Part III	602	(5)
Notes on Sources	607	(8)
Index	615