Tinderbox

By Craig Timberg, Daniel Halperin,

Book cover of Tinderbox: How the West Sparked the AIDS Epidemic and How the World Can Finally Overcome it

Book description

In this groundbreaking narrative, longtime Washington Post reporter Craig Timberg and award-winning AIDS researcher Daniel Halperin tell the surprising story of how Western colonial powers unwittingly sparked the AIDS epidemic and then fanned its rise. Drawing on remarkable new science, Tinderbox overturns the conventional wisdom on the origins of this…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep the lights on. Or join the rebellion as a member.

Why read it?

1 author picked Tinderbox as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Craig Timberg was a reporting colleague when I was a correspondent in South Africa, and became a friend, one with whom I often passionately disagreed.

That’s why I suggest this book: it offers a very different perspective than mine. Craig and his co-author Halperin, an epidemiologist whose work had a big influence on Craig’s thinking, draw a clear through-line for how Western powers created the sparks of the African epidemic then vigorously fanned them.

A significant chunk of the book focuses on solutions (Halperin is a vociferous champion of male circumcision as an intervention to drive down the spread of…

Want books like Tinderbox?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like Tinderbox.

Browse books like Tinderbox

Book cover of Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World
Book cover of HIV & AIDS: A Very Short Introduction
Book cover of To End a Plague: America's Fight to Defeat AIDS in Africa

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,098

readers submitted
so far, will you?

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in HIV/AIDS, colonies, and epidemiology?

HIV/AIDS 70 books
Colonies 75 books
Epidemiology 14 books