"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.