And The Band Played On is what all good non-fiction sets out to be - detailed, interesting and deeply illuminating.
My simplistic understanding was that AIDS got its toe-hold on the world because Reagan and his cronies were only too happy to let gays and IV drug users die. In this landmark book about the early days of the epidemic, Randy Shilts lays out a much more complex picture of the truth. Also among the groups complicit in the unfolding tragedy were the scientists who placed their overweening egos before the needs of the sick, and the gay leaders who were more interested in preserving gay men's rights to anonymous bathhouse sex than educating them about the mortal dangers they faced. A masterpiece of investigative journalism.