One of the most striking aspects of this book is the intellectual honesty with which Iliffe approaches the subject – a historical account of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa. He acknowledges, explicitly, that the book is not a product of a thorough research process; rather the book's purpose is to present a historical account of the epidemic(s) for students and other interested readers. Iliffe's book represents the first solid effort to trace the history of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa. Drawing on research from a multitude of disciplines, including public health, anthropology, economics and sociology, Iliffe brings together a historical account that traces the origins and spread of the epidemic, its varied impacts, and the responses to it over the past thirty years. The value of the book is two-fold. First, it serves as a foundation for students entering into studies of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa. Second, Iliffe places the epidemic in the greater context of Africa's complex history. In doing so, he recognises that the epidemic is not a discrete event in Africa's history; rather it is intricately linked to the long historical forces at play on the continent. While the epidemic clearly has caused changes in Africa's historical direction (and, just as importantly, the historical direction of individual states), Africa's history has affected the epidemic's progress across the continent and the responses to it.

The book contains fourteen concise chapters that could easily be categorised into two larger topics. The first seven chapters trace the origin and spread of the epidemic from equatorial Africa to the rest of the continent's regions. These chapters delve into the complex medical and epidemiological literature about how the virus operates, its origins and its vectors of transmission. The chapters are at times dense, but certainly accessible to the lay reader. Implicit in them is that this may not necessarily be classified as a single epidemic, but that what Africa has faced for thirty years is multiple epidemics, shaped by socio-economic and political conditions within each region and each country. Hence when Iliffe discusses the views of and responses to the epidemic in the latter seven chapters, it becomes clear that each country and region has experienced a common epidemic in name, but not necessarily in the factors that have promoted its spread or the responses to it.

The book represents a strong introduction to the epidemic's history in Africa. Of course, it is already out of date, particularly given the recent research related to our misunderstandings of how the virus attacks the body. This, of course, is not Illife's fault, but it does show that what we know about the virus and its impact is sadly, like Iliffe's book, a work in progress. Nonetheless, this book will be an important contribution to understanding this tragic period of Africa's history.