Those interested in studying the history of HIV/AIDS and how it spread should read The Chimp and the River: How AIDS emerged from an African Forest (2015) by David Quammen,. and AIDS at 30 (2012) by Victoria Harden. One of the most influential works written early in the epidemic is And the Band Played on: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic (1987) by Randy Shilts. It would also be beneficial to read articles in your area of interest in the Journal of Homosexuality. For an overview of gay and lesbian rights in American history, read Making Gay History: The Half-Century Fight for Lesbian and Gay Equal Rights (2002) by Eric Marcus. For the history of ACT UP, read Victory: The Triumpant Gay Revolution (2012) by Linda Hirshman, and From ACT UP to the WTO: Urban Protest and Community Building in the Era of Globalization (2002) by Benjamin Heim Shephard and Ronald Hayduk.
For those specifically interested in Kansas City’s response to HIV/AIDS, articles in the Kansas City Star and the Kansas City Times can be found through the Kansas City Public Library, which also houses the official records of ACT UP/KC in the Missouri Valley Room.
There are also numerous gay periodicals which can be found at the Gay & Lesbian Archive of Mid-America (GLAMA) at the University of Missouri Kansas City. These include The Alternate News and The Lesbian and Gay News Telegraph. The Steve Pierce Collection is filled with information regarding the Mayor’s Task Force and the AIDS Council of Greater Kansas City, and the Todd-Bratt Collection is a wonderful resource for news clippings, ACT UP/KC newsletters and news releases. This work would have not have been possible without the support and cooperation of Jonathon D. Barnett. Oral interviews with Jon can be found through GLAMA upon request.