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And the Band Plays On
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We mainly pay attention to newer books here, but I’d like to raise a glass to a book celebrating its 20th anniversary: “And the Band Played On,” by the late Randy Shilts. This landmark history of the early years of the AIDS epidemic was published in 1987, when Ronald Reagan was still president. Shilts died of AIDS-related complications in 1994.
Shilts was one of the first journalists to recognize the importance of AIDS as a news story, back in the days when it didn’t even have a name yet, but was sometimes called “the gay disease.” He reported on the outbreak for the San Francisco Chronicle, and used his knowledge from the beat to write “And the Band Played On.”
“Band” was a thorough social and medical history of the disease, written with a historian’s eye but also with a great deal of passion. Shilts let his anger come through, both against President Reagan’s refusal to speak up publicly about AIDS, which could have helped public attitudes and funding, and against the promiscuous behavior of some men who helped spread the disease.
The book was back in the news recently when a study stated that AIDS probably entered the U.S. via Haiti; Shilts had tied it to a Canadian flight attendant he dubbed “Patient Zero.” If events have shown up some parts of Shilts’ history as bogus — and it’s not conclusive that’s the case, from what I can understand — this is still one of the most important books of the last 50 years.
St. Martin’s Press has issued a new 20th anniversary edition of “And the Band Played On.” Thank you, Randy Shilts.
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