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A review by yikesbmg
Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT Up New York, 1987-1993 by Sarah Schulman
5.0
This is a long, long, LONG book and a treasure trove of information. I have never read a nonfiction book that’s 600+ pages long and kept me locked in for every single paragraph. I have a deep personal interest in the AIDS crisis so I’m not sure that other people will be as into this as I was. As a political organizer, I found this book to have nuggets of gold in every division. I can only really think of one section where Schulman lost me and was brief.
I loved that Schulman spent so much time going through how people of color, women, and IV drug users experienced and organized around HIV/AIDS. I had been itching to find my own community reflected in how AIDS activism is portrayed, and I found it in this book. It means a lot of know that men and women of color worked within their communities, even if that mean within prisons, to address this epidemic.
I loved the strategic aspect of this book, breaking down core lessons for how to organize. ACT UP is an interesting case of simultaneously structured and unstructured organizing, of inside/outside strategies, and of lay people fighting institutions and their bureaucracies. I am SO glad that Schulman took time to go through the role of art, and how technology transformed the role of photography and video throughout this crisis - it was really illuminating and added a whole new dimension to this time period.
Towards the beginning of this book, Schulman takes issue with How to Survive a Plague by David France. It’s all valid - she finds much he centers the white gay experience and individual leaders harmful and historically inaccurate. I am glad I read both books and that I read his first because France’s book provided a baseline understanding of the scientific developments that this book doesn’t. So, if you can, read both books.
The last thing I’ll say is that Schulman clearly poured her heart and soul into this book. No detail is spared. There are beautiful sections honoring the lives of ACT UPers and their loved ones. Schulman doesn’t just introduce people through their work with ACT UP. She always starts with where they grew up, details about their life before the crisis which automatically locked me into how real — and normal, not some extraordinary or exceptionally brilliant — person each one was. By doing so, Schulman underlines how every person who got involved in ACT UP made an active choice to make change and every life lost was valuable.
Truly an exceptional book. I’m so glad I made time to read if (including the appendices!).
I loved that Schulman spent so much time going through how people of color, women, and IV drug users experienced and organized around HIV/AIDS. I had been itching to find my own community reflected in how AIDS activism is portrayed, and I found it in this book. It means a lot of know that men and women of color worked within their communities, even if that mean within prisons, to address this epidemic.
I loved the strategic aspect of this book, breaking down core lessons for how to organize. ACT UP is an interesting case of simultaneously structured and unstructured organizing, of inside/outside strategies, and of lay people fighting institutions and their bureaucracies. I am SO glad that Schulman took time to go through the role of art, and how technology transformed the role of photography and video throughout this crisis - it was really illuminating and added a whole new dimension to this time period.
Towards the beginning of this book, Schulman takes issue with How to Survive a Plague by David France. It’s all valid - she finds much he centers the white gay experience and individual leaders harmful and historically inaccurate. I am glad I read both books and that I read his first because France’s book provided a baseline understanding of the scientific developments that this book doesn’t. So, if you can, read both books.
The last thing I’ll say is that Schulman clearly poured her heart and soul into this book. No detail is spared. There are beautiful sections honoring the lives of ACT UPers and their loved ones. Schulman doesn’t just introduce people through their work with ACT UP. She always starts with where they grew up, details about their life before the crisis which automatically locked me into how real — and normal, not some extraordinary or exceptionally brilliant — person each one was. By doing so, Schulman underlines how every person who got involved in ACT UP made an active choice to make change and every life lost was valuable.
Truly an exceptional book. I’m so glad I made time to read if (including the appendices!).