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215th out of 713 books
—
726 voters
AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame
by
Paul Farmer
Does the scientific "theory" that HIV came to North America from Haiti stem from underlying attitudes of racism and ethnocentrism in the United States rather than from hard evidence? Anthropologist-physician Paul Farmer answers in the affirmative with this, the first full-length ethnographic study of AIDS in a poor society.
Paperback, 338 pages
Published
August 9th 1993
by University of California Press
(first published 1992)
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Great book. Should have 5 stars for significance, really. "Like" isn't the right word for the book -- maybe utmost respect and admiration? Incredibly compelling, and the importance of the subject carried me through the one or two dry statistics chapters in the middle. He shows the obstacles poor rural Haitians face without making them seem like victims, nor obscuring their individuality. Great brief history of Haiti, and its intertwining with the U.S. And also a great job of medical anthropology...more
Vitally important book, a must read for anyone working in public health, medical anthropology, health and foreign policy, and most especially, HIV. If every organization working on the reconstruction of Haiti after the earthquake of 2010 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Hai...) isn't listing this book as mandatory reading for every single worker, volunteer, advisor... they should! Event though it came out in 1994, the key points - about assumptions and how they can have devastating effects for...more
This was an excellent read, however a dense one. While enrolled in a Medical Anthropology course for my undergrad degree I was required to read this one. Trust me, this is something that you would just pick up for a weekend read. It has a lot of topics that you really must sit down and think about.
Paul Farmer is a medical doctor and an anthropologist who has a big goal, to save the world. I must say that after I read this I felt that my goals very too small compared to this man. This book talks...more
Paul Farmer is a medical doctor and an anthropologist who has a big goal, to save the world. I must say that after I read this I felt that my goals very too small compared to this man. This book talks...more
Mar 02, 2008
Donna
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
medical-anthropology,
haiti
Paul Farmer’s mission to educate the western world about the true causes of sickness and poverty, about the connections between political economy and human suffering is admirably addressed in this powerful book. Farmer tells us the stories of individual Haitians stricken with AIDS in the late 1980s in the tiny community of Do Kay. He explains how local knowledge and personal reactions to illness are connected to larger national and global forces, and how the stage was set hundreds of years ago f...more
A potentially great book ruined as the author decended into an angry diatribe against foreign intervention in Haiti. The first 150 pages were exellent - Farmer meticulously documents the story of a small Haitian village, its history, community and the beginning of its AIDS crisis. It is both a moving story and extremely compelling reading. Farmer then dedicates a large section of the book to a history of the Haitian state and its political economy, and this is where he unfortunately goes off the...more
Read for class. I couldn't get into it, I felt that Farmer repeated himself and I had trouble keeping up with the names. I felt that the book could have been a little better organized for an easier and less flustrating reading.
The best parts were the chapters that focused on the individual stories of specific people.
The best parts were the chapters that focused on the individual stories of specific people.
A fantastic critique of the initial epidemiology performed by western experts, which lead to the creation of the "4 H club", one of which stood for Haitians. Farmer convincingly argues that when AIDS arrived in the western hemisphere, it most likely moved from the U.S. to Haiti, and not the other way around.
Parts of this book were very good, parts of it were very boring. Farmer wrote this book from his dissertation and you can definitely tell. There is a lot of background information that is "unnecessary" to the heart of the story (the sociological study of HIV in Haiti) that would not be missed by the common reader. The most interesting stuff is the qualitative interviews he does with the people of Do Kay around the 4 case studies of HIV that he does. I feel like his arguments around the blame and...more
This is an excellent book that provides insight on Haiti through the interdisciplinary lens. It's not just about AIDS. It's about how the AIDS epidemic took place in Haiti through the actions of the United States as well as Haitian leadership. It is a historical account of events with personal accounts of real people, on the backdrop of environmental justice. Did you know that the US gov. wiped out ALL creole pigs, which were Haitian pigs, so that pigs from the US would be sent over there? Haiti...more
My all time favorite ethnography. Farmer possesses this brilliant ability to write to many audiences at once. You may read the text with a level of academically oriented sophistication or approach it with little interest and background in anthropology or medicine and take something very valuable away. He is also successful at weaving the local and the global together with artistic and scholarly style. He writes of personal stories from Haiti and contextualizes them within different levels of ana...more
Taught me how to see illness in the view of the people instead of through science. Simply amazing read.
Historical, read this instead of the book "about" Paul Farmer
Had to read for a class. No interest in the book.
A real eye opener...
Excellent example of medical anthropology. Farmer combines history, political economy, epidemiology and lived experience. He poses a convincing challenge to the idea that AIDS was brought to the U.S. from Haiti and argues that, most likely, it was the other way around. But he doesn't stop there. He digs deeper, exploring the historical, sociological and cultural roots of the propensity to blame Haiti for all its problems -- and, now, for AIDS.
Farmer knows his stuff-accessible and gut-wrenching on one of my favorite topics
Farmer investigates different factors that influence social responses to AIDS in Haiti. He narrates the history of Haiti in an interesting and effective manner, and supports his points in such a way that even readers who have not been exposed to anthropological literature will enjoy AIDS and Accusation.
The cover shown here is the earlier edition, I am reading the updated version from 2006. This is an excellent look at the politics of the AIDS crisis from one of the leading experts in public health and medicine in the third world, as well as here at home. Recommended reading.
Farmer outlines the beginning of the AIDS epidemic and the structures that led to the blame of Haiti for transmission of the virus to the United States. As always, Farmer looks at the root causes of inequality that are the real culprits of the transmission of infectious disease.
Great book that provide in insight of how HIV made its way to Haiti, the devastating effects it has on lives, and Haiti being blame for HIV in the USA and the social implication of that blame.
AMAZING book. Definitely useful to remember the manipulations and constructions of disease and its identity before we endorse what we are told, what we read etc. Realy well written.
Concisely, the enthographic accounts in Paul Farmer´s AIDS and Accusations are worth the read---a lot of the rest is dry and difficult to get through, even for a public health major.
Apr 15, 2010
Catrina
added it
so far it is is giving a great overview of the history of AIDS and has very touching personal stories from women who had AIDS.
Great Medical Anthropology book and a must read for anyone interested in Haiti-American relations
Damning work, pretty dry, well constructed. Also, he wrote it on a hillside in Haiti. Nuts.
May 08, 2008
Pat
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Anyone who is motivated to help the developing nations of this world
Stigmas and the bastards that created them...
May 21, 2013
Rogelio Abelard
marked it as to-read
May 19, 2013
Pamela
is currently reading it
May 18, 2013
Bianca
marked it as to-read
May 15, 2013
Katherine Kilpatrick
marked it as to-read
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Paul Farmer is a U.S. anthropologist and physician, the Presley Professor of Medical Anthropology in the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard University, and an attending physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. In May 2009 he was named chairman of Harvard Medical School's Department of Global Health and Social Medicine. His medical specialty is infectious diseases....more
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