Mapping AIDS

Reviews / Votes

'A persuasive rethinking of nearly four decades of medical and social upheaval, Mapping AIDS cleverly juxtaposes three visual genres - photographs, maps, and viral models - to explain how people, places, and pathogens take on medical and moral meanings.' Steven Epstein, Northwestern University, Illinois 'From the photographic archives of the early North American epidemic, to the emerging cartography of a global pandemic, to the rendering of the HIV virus itself, Mapping AIDS demonstrates the central role of visual media in crafting scientific knowledge, social meanings, and biomedical responses to disease, with powerful consequences for good and for ill.' Jeremy A. Greene, The Johns Hopkins University 'This thoughtful and ingeniously argued study tracks AIDS from its beginnings as a nameless condition in a few individuals as it evolved into a recognized social thing, an entity with a legitimating mechanism, and therapeutic and bureaucratic responses.' Charles Rosenberg, Harvard University, Massachusetts 'Engelmann's argument is an interesting one that highlights not only some of the many ways to view an epidemic, but also the challenges associated with contextualizing theories, particularly ones that cross cultural boundaries.' Janet Greenlees, Technology and Culture