In How To Survive a Plague, David France is both a witness and a journalist, documenting the movement that fought to make AIDS a manageable disease rather than a death sentence. The book is not just about the collective movement, but also about individual activists, people who were faced with something unprecedented and had to fight against neglect, discrimination, and ignorance to save their lives and lives of their friends. This history is And The Band Played On for the new generation, a behind-the-scenes comprehensive work of journalism and a deeply personal account. In its depiction of activists’ struggle, it is also an inspiring book, showing us what can be done by determined and desperate people in unfriendly and uncertain times.