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Title details for How to Survive a Plague by David France - Wait list

How to Survive a Plague

The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS

by David France
Rory O'Malley
Audiobook
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A New York Times 2016 Notable Book
The definitive history of the successful battle to halt the AIDS epidemic—from the creator of, and inspired by, the seminal documentary How to Survive a Plague.
A riveting, powerful telling of the story of the grassroots movement of activists, many of them in a life-or-death struggle, who seized upon scientific research to help develop the drugs that turned HIV from a mostly fatal infection to a manageable disease. Ignored by public officials, religious leaders, and the nation at large, and confronted with shame and hatred, this small group of men and women chose to fight for their right to live by educating themselves and demanding to become full partners in the race for effective treatments. Around the globe, 16 million people are alive today thanks to their efforts.
Not since the publication of Randy Shilts’s classic And the Band Played On has a book measured the AIDS plague in such brutally human, intimate, and soaring terms.
In dramatic fashion, we witness the founding of ACT UP and TAG (Treatment Action Group), and the rise of an underground drug market in opposition to the prohibitively expensive (and sometimes toxic) AZT. We watch as these activists learn to become their own researchers, lobbyists, drug smugglers, and clinicians, establishing their own newspapers, research journals, and laboratories, and as they go on to force reform in the nation’s disease-fighting agencies.
With his unparalleled access to this community David France illuminates the lives of extraordinary characters, including the closeted Wall Street trader-turned-activist, the high school dropout who found purpose battling pharmaceutical giants in New York, the South African physician who helped establish the first officially recognized buyers’ club at the height of the epidemic, and the public relations executive fighting to save his own life for the sake of his young daughter.
Expansive yet richly detailed, this is an insider’s account of a pivotal moment in the history of American civil rights. Powerful, heart-wrenching, and finally exhilarating, How to Survive a Plague is destined to become an essential part of the literature of AIDS.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    November 29, 2016

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781524708139
      • File size: 705194 KB
      • Duration: 24:29:09

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE tackles the enormous task of chronicling the fight against the AIDS epidemic. David France's voluminous work details the stories of so many people, including victims, advocates, and scientists. Trying to absorb so much information could be daunting, but Rory O'Malley's narration will help the listener along. His steady delivery brings each piece of the story into focus. When describing both the scientific means of discovering and studying the virus as well as the emotional trials of those who contracted it, O'Malley's even pacing and tone give a sense of the pathos of events. Part history, part science, and part storytelling, this aptly titled book reveals how a community, though devastated, survived a plague. A.G.M. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from December 12, 2016
      Journalist France (Our Fathers) illuminates the origins and progress of the fight against AIDS in this moving mix of memoir and reportage, a companion book to his eponymous Academy Awardânominated 2012 documentary. He covers a revolution in drug development that occurred as patients, for the first time, "joined in the search for their own salvation." France begins in 1981, when a buried New York Times story first identified a "Rare Cancer Seen in 41 Homosexuals," and continues through 1996, when a medical system transformed by activism delivered treatments that rendered AIDS a manageable illness. He juxtaposes his personal involvement with that of a group of self-proclaimed "HIVIPs," key ACT UP leaders from their Treatment + Data Committee whose collective mission was getting the medical establishment to put "drugs into bodies." Eventually, ACT UP became unwieldy and the group spun-off into the Treatment Action Group. France shares with passion and pathos the personal battles of these activists, offering both plaudits and opprobrium to an array of players who constituted the fabric of the community. As important as Randy Shilts's And the Band Played On was in 1987, France's work is a must-read for a new generation of empowered patients, informed medical practitioners, and challenged caregiversâlest history repeat itself.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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