"This is the most important book about AIDS and gay men since Randy Shilts's And the Band Played On. And it is far better."—Martin Duberman, The Nation

"Rotello's ambitious book is the Silent Spring of the AIDS epidemic."—The Boston Globe

Gabriel Rotello, an award-winning gay journalist and long-time AIDS activist, has done in this book something no writer has done before. Weaving together the strands of ecology theory, epidemiology and sexual politics, he shows how the AIDS epidemic, like other epidemics from influenza to bubonic plague to today's rapidly emerging viruses, result as much from human behaviors as from specific microbes. He argues convincingly that AIDS was probably a rare disease syndrome in humans that erupted into an epidemic only when cultural changes—including the gay male sexual revolution of the seventies—created ideal conditions for its evolution and spread.

For the first time ever, Rotello describes in detail the surprising scientific consensus about why, precisely, AIDS hit gay men so hard. Rebutting both the left's position that AIDS was merely an accident, and simplistic right-wing theories that blame promiscuity alone, Rotello presents the compelling but troubling verdict embraced by epidemiologists: AIDS was spread by a fusion of factors built right into the fabric of urban gay life after Stonewall.

Turning to current research, Rotello explains how and why researchers believe that AIDS is continuing to saturate the gay male population despite widespread AIDS awareness and condom use. And he provides compelling evidence that if the current lack of ecological awareness continues, our best chance of containing the epidemic with drug therapies could be squandered.

Intensively researched, passionately argued and intellectually rigorous, Rotello's groundbreaking message is that although AIDS cannot yet be cured, it can be contained.