Infectious Ideas

by Brier, Jennifer

• ISBN13: 9780807833148
• ISBN10: 0807833142
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-11-01
• Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Pr

Summary

InInfectious Ideas, Jennifer Brier convincingly argues that the AIDS epidemic had a profound effect the American political landscape. Viewing contemporary history from the perspective of the AIDS crisis, she provides rich, new understandings of the complex social and political trends of the post-1960s era. Brier describes how AIDS workers--in groups as disparate as the gay and lesbian press, AIDS service organizations, private philanthropies, and the State Department--influenced American politics, especially on issues such as gay and lesbian rights, reproductive health, racial justice, and health care policy, even in the face of the expansion of the New Right. Indeed, the book shows that efforts to deal with AIDS produced significant fissures in the conservative movement during this period, especially when the State Department and USAID adopted AIDS as a centerpiece of its diplomatic strategy, including the distribution of millions of condoms overseas. Infectious Ideasplaces recent social, cultural, and political events in a new light, making an important contribution to our understanding of the United States at the end of the twentieth century.

Author Biography

Jennifer Brier is assistant professor of gender and women's studies and history at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. xi
Prologue	p. 1
Affection is our Best Protection: Early AIDS Activism and the Legacy of Gay Liberation	p. 11
Marketing Safe Sex: The Politics of Sexuality, Race, and Class in San Francisco, 1983-1991	p. 45
What Should the Federal Government Do to Deal with the Problem of AIDS? The Reagan Administration's Response	p. 78
AIDS, Reproductive Rights, and Economic Empowerment: The Ford Foundation's Response to AIDS in the Global South, 1987-1995	p. 122
Drugs into Bodies, Bodies into Health Care: The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power and the Struggle over How Best to Fight AIDS	p. 156
Epilogue. We Struggle against It Together: The South African
AIDS Alliance, 1996-2003	p. 190
Notes	p. 201
Bibliography	p. 253
Index	p. 279
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