"An eye for colorful vignettes and anecdotes. On target! She recognizes
        the importance of her subject." -- Thomas N. Bonner, author of To
        the Ends of the Earth: Women's Search for Education in Medicine
      Those struggling to deal with the AIDS epidemic might learn valuable
        lessons from the earlier struggle of the U.S. to deal with syphilis. Here,
        Suzanne Poirier tells the story of the Chicago Syphilis Control Program
        launched in 1937 by the Chicago Board of Health and the U.S. Public Health
        Service and severely limited from the start because of the refusal of
        government, the press, and the public to confront directly the issues
        underlying the problem.
      Poirier's narrative is memorable for its vivid scenes, colorful characters
        that include Chicago's "clap doctor," Dr. Ben Reitman, and its
        account of the heated debate that surrounded the effort. In an epilogue,
        the author discusses similarities between current efforts against AIDS
        and the handling and politics of the syphilis problem in the late 1930s.