First published in 1987, this book stands as a truly great work of journalism definitively chronicling the first five years of the AIDS epidemic. Shilts seamlessly interweaves the stories of public health authorities, political leaders, and government officials who allowed the disease to rage out of control through inaction, infighting, and intolerance. But in the face of this tragedy, Shilts also uncovers a handful of people, scientists, doctors, nurses, gay leaders, and people with AIDS whose acts of courage ultimately transform a tale of cowardice and despair into one of compassion, inspiration and redemption. A must-read to understand the entire story that touched so many lives during the 1980s.