Journals of the plague years: documenting the history of the AIDS epidemic in the United States

Abstract

This commentary discusses several journalistic, literary, and historical accounts of the AIDS epidemic as it has unfolded in the United States over the past 2 decades. By examining the different ways that different types of storytellers chronicle the political, social, public health, medical, and economic aspects of epidemic disease, this essay will demonstrate why the AIDS epidemic has been of such intense interest not only to physicians and public health experts but also to journalists, novelists, playwrights, memoirists, and historians. AIDS is a particularly fascinating example of society's broad concern with epidemics because it both is a global pandemic and, in recent years, has become a chronic disease.