Cornell U. Press

Changing the course of AIDS; peer education in South Africa and its lessons for the global crisis.

The AIDS crisis is presently at its most dire in Southern Africa, due to social and economic factors. Dickinson (sociology, the University of the Witwatersrand) spent over a year studying a program of peer education about the disease that was instituted first within the mining companies. The rationale is that people do not respond well to lectures from those above them, who are often from a different social and racial background. Therefore, volunteers were trained to talk with coworkers about AIDS and provide information about prevention and treatment. Dickinson realized that these programs worked best when the educators were able to give informal input rather than follow a script. Working within the community mores and structure including calling on traditional healers, the educators are able to communicate with those affected by AIDS. "They can get people to talk." (p.214) They also can give information that will be passed along. Dickinson is aware that there are many hurdles to overcome, including that of the disruption of normal family life through the necessity for men to live far from their families in order to support them. This program is not applicable to AIDS and Africa alone, but could be used in drug, smoking and obesity treatments everywhere as well. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Inside chronic pain; an intimate and critical account.

Aiming to help improve how patients and practitioners deal with the issue, Heshusius (education, York U., Canada) provides an account of her experiences with chronic pain, which she has had for about a decade after surviving a car accident. Drawing partly on the pain journal she has kept, she describes how it affects her life and work, her experiences with health care providers, and makes suggestions for improvements. A clinical commentary by a physician concludes the book. It is the first in a collection of books on how patients think in the series The Culture and Politics of Health Care Work. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Living weapons; biological warfare and international security.

Koblentz (government and politics, George Mason U.) examines biological weapons programs from the United States, Russia, Iraq and South Africa to reveal the challenges of global arms control and deterrence, showing students and policymakers how modern research in the life sciences can be exploited to build more effective weapons. The author exposes the threats of biological weapons by showing how easy these weapons can be developed and purchased by developing nations and terrorist organizations. Recommendations are also made for threat reduction through international security measures, better detection technology and the limiting of the proliferation of materials. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Meeting the demands of reason; the life and thought of Andrei Sakharov.

Andrei Sakharov was in many ways the Russian equivalent of Robert Oppenheimer. Both men were brilliant physicists who were instrumental in creating insidious weapons of mass destruction. Both became strong advocates of human rights and both found that their scientific achievements could only protect them from their governments up to a point. In his biography of Sakharov, Bergman (history, Central Connecticut State University) reminds the reader that Sakharov did not suffer from the guilt that consumed Oppenheimer. Sakharov believed that it was important to have a strong defensive system. His disquiet was related to individual liberties within the Soviet Union. His championing of the dissident cause and the rights of ethnic minorities, including both German-Russians and Jews, brought him into conflict with the government and he spent several years in internal exile in Gorky. Bergman's is very much an intellectual biography, following the course of Sakharov's developing commitment to human rights. This is an inspiring portrait of a man known in the West more as a symbol that as a person. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)