The Viral Underclass
The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
**LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 PEN/JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH AWARD FOR NONFICTION**
**LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDALS FOR EXCELLENCE**
**WINNER OF THE 2022 POZ AWARD FOR BEST IN LITERATURE**
*Sarah Schulman named The Viral Underclass one of the Best Books of the 21st Century for the New York Times*
"An irresistibly readable and humane exploration of the barbarities of class...readers are gifted that most precious of things in these muddled times: a clear lens through which to see the world."
—Naomi Klein, New York Times bestselling author of This Changes Everything and The Shock Doctrine
From preeminent LGBTQ scholar, social critic, and journalist Steven W. Thrasher comes a powerful and crucial exploration of one of the most pressing issues of our times: how viruses expose the fault lines of society.
Having spent a ground-breaking career studying the racialization, policing, and criminalization of HIV, Dr. Thrasher has come to understand a deeper truth at the heart of our society: that there are vast inequalities in who is able to survive viruses and that the ways in which viruses spread, kill, and take their toll are much more dependent on social structures than they are on biology alone.
Told through the heart-rending stories of friends, activists, and teachers navigating the novel coronavirus, HIV, and other viruses, Dr. Thrasher brings the reader with him as he delves into the viral underclass and lays bare its inner workings. In the tradition of Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste and Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow, The Viral Underclass helps us understand the world more deeply by showing the fraught relationship between privilege and survival.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
It turns out that race, class, and economics have a lot more to do with the spread of disease than you might think. Journalist Steven W. Thrasher has been covering the AIDS crisis and LGBTQ+ issues for years, giving him a great background to explore the eye-opening parallels between HIV and the COVID-19 pandemic. In this sometimes shocking, always fascinating book, Thrasher reveals how politics, money, and cultural scapegoating have cost lives throughout modern history. Along with solid reporting and impressive research, Thrasher introduces us to people who’ve been caught in the web of viral disease or are fighting to protect others—and his warm, compassionate character studies remind us of the human beings behind the statistics. You may be outraged by The Viral Underclass, but it’s a gripping read and a powerful call to action.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Thrasher, a professor of journalism, public health, and queer studies at Northwestern University, debuts with a powerful look at "the relationship between viruses and marginalization." Contending that "marginalized populations are subjected to increased harms of viral transmission, exposure, replication, and death," Thrasher identifies 12 "social vectors"—including capitalism, racism, ableism, and "the liberal carceral state"—at the root of the problem. The story of Michael Johnson, "a gay, Black, sexually active wrestler with learning disabilities," who was sentenced in 2015 to 30 years in prison for "recklessly transmitting" HIV to a white man and exposing four other sexual partners to the virus, provides a through line as Thrasher documents how minority groups are more susceptible to diseases and more likely to be stigmatized and punished for carrying them (in the late 19th century, he notes, fears of bubonic plague led to the quarantining of San Francisco's Chinatown and the extension of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act). Elsewhere, Thrasher profiles a transgender Latinx activist who died of Covid-19 in March 2020, examines the links between ableism and antivaccine rhetoric, and argues that "capitalism's economic goals at odds with human health." Rigorous scholarship and intimate portraits of life and death on the margins make this a must-read.
