AIDS in America

Publishers Weekly

Hunter writes that more than one million Americans are infected with HIV, and the infection rate surged between 2002 and 2003. A consultant to UNICEF and other health organizations, Hunter makes two main points in this wide-ranging polemic. The first is that AIDS is no longer confined to marginalized populations; the second is that government policies and the influence of the Christian right are helping to ensure its unnecessarily rapid spread. The book centers on Paige Swanberg, a young single mother from Billings, Mont., who was infected after a brief liaison with a newcomer to town. By the time Hunter encounters her, Swanberg is an AIDS counselor and activist who has learned that her paternal grandfather also died of the disease. "AIDS in the United States is a family disease," Hunter writes, and she uses Swanberg's family-her mother, biological father, adoptive father and two sisters-to illustrate how the rise in the number of single-parent families, the advent of government-sanctioned abstinence-only sex education and the monopolistic policies of American drug companies have combined to create a recipe for a coming public health disaster. Hunter's ability to render such a large body of information coherent is impressive. At times, she undercuts the wealth of information with too much polemic and unsubstantiated and alarmist statements. 16 pages of b&w illus. (Mar. 28) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Hunter, a global expert on AIDS, turns her attention to the current situation in America. Although her earlier works have been well received (e.g., AIDS in Asia; Black Death: AIDS in Africa), this volume can be a tough read owing to the author's obvious frustration with the political Right. Hunter makes excellent points about the continuing spread of the disease, but a large portion of the text is a diatribe against the Christian Right and the Bush administration, two groups that, in her opinion, have contributed to much of the recent spread of HIV infection. There is also coverage of the changing demographics of HIV infections, the effect of abstinence-only sex education on infection rates, and the impact of prisons and poverty on the spread of HIV. A new, impartial book about AIDS in America is needed, but Hunter's strident tone may turn off many readers. Overall, her book would have been stronger if she had allowed her extensive research and statistics to speak for themselves. A marginal purchase, but there may be demand because of celebrity endorsements.-Tina Neville, Univ. of South Florida at St. Petersburg Lib. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A disturbing picture of the status of AIDS in the United States and an angry claim that the country has failed utterly to confront the problem. Hunter, a medical anthropologist who has previously written on the specter of AIDS in Africa and Asia, asserts not only that the United States has the most severe HIV epidemic of any developed country but that AIDS will soon become the worst epidemic this country will ever know. Most Americans, she says, are woefully ignorant about AIDS, still thinking of it as something that affects homosexuals and drug users, but not themselves or the people they know. To counteract this notion, she focuses on the story of Paige Swanberg, a white, middle-class woman from Montana who learned that she was HIV-positive when she tried to join the Navy and has since become an AIDS counselor. Hunter also interviewed a number of other activists and people touched by AIDS, and her text is heavily larded with their comments, some pertinent but many not. She is particularly scornful of the Christian Right, deploring its abstinence-only approach to sex education and its disinformation campaign about condoms, and she has harsh words for the Bush administration for catering to their demands. The government, she claims, has failed to protect citizens through acts of commission and omission: e.g., its "war on drugs," with a mass-incarceration approach that promotes the spread of AIDS, as crowded prisons becoming ideal breeding grounds for drug-resistant superstrains of HIV; its cuts in funding for treatment programs; its attacks on women's reproductive rights; its withdrawal of support for housing and food for HIV-positive Americans. Hunter is clearly outraged by what shesees, and her language reflects her wrath: a government that "doesn't seem to give a damn"; "right-wing hatemongers" and "vote-buying liberals"; and a drug industry with a "stranglehold" on government. The author's vituperation may alienate some, and her voluminous statistics may turn off others, but her demand that attention be paid comes through loud and clear.

From the Publisher

"Susan Hunter is inspiring. This book will open your eyes and challenge what you think you know about AIDS in America. This is our country, and we can not afford to look away — we need to act and empower ourselves with the information that is often hidden from our view."—Alicia Keys

"AIDS in America is a necessary step in a situation we cannot afford to ignore."—Donald Trump

"Hunter's ability to render such a large body of information coherent is impressive..."—Publisher's Weekly "This book, and the stories of the people in it, is a call to arms. We all need to be armed with this information so we can tell our friends and families and neighbors and shock them into action."—Alan Cumming, from the preface

"Susan Hunter's breakthrough third book, AIDS in America is a wake up call about the raging epidemic in our midst. It should compel us all to break the silence on the crisis in American values that is putting my children and yours at a great and worsening risk from HIV/AIDS—-right here in the homeland."—Paul Zeitz, Executive Director, Global AIDS Alliance

Praise for Black Death:"This book opens many new perspectives on what has become the largest epidemic in human history. More importantly, it gives us insight into the human tragedy and triumph that is the daily bread of people and communities in the areas most affected by AIDS throughout the world"—Peter Piot, Executive Director, UNAIDS