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

And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS
Epidemic, 20th-Anniversary Edition
By Randy Shilts
St. Martins, 630 pp.,
$18.99

Written by then San Francisco Chronicle reporter Randy Shilts, the international bestseller is hailed one of the most essential books of our time. In this 2007 edition of the 1987 original, Shilts reveals why the disease was initially ignored by the nation's most trusted institutions and allowed to spread throughout the population unchecked. Chronicling the early years of the crisis, And the Band Played On is considered the first major book about AIDS.

SFGate Audio Podcast: Remembering Randy Shilts

---