Let the Record Show

A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993

By: Sarah Schulman

Narrated by: Rosalyn Coleman Williams, Sarah Schulman

2021 NPR Best Book of the Year

This program includes an introduction read by the author.

One of O, the Oprah Magazine's 32 LGBTQ Books That Will Change the Literary Landscape in 2021, one of Vogue's 9 LGBTQ+ Books We're Looking Forward to This Spring, one of and Cosmopolitan's LGBTQ+ Books to Add to Your Reading List in 2021, one of The Observer's Spring Books You Don't Want to Miss, and one of Bloomberg's 14 Books to Put on Your Reading List This Spring

"A masterpiece of historical research and intellectual analysis that creates many windows into both a vanished world and the one that emerged from it, the one we live in now." (Alexander Chee)

Twenty years in the making, Sarah Schulman's Let the Record Show is the most comprehensive political history ever assembled of ACT UP and American AIDS activism.

In just six years, ACT UP, New York, a broad and unlikely coalition of activists from all races, genders, sexualities, and backgrounds, changed the world. Armed with rancor, desperation, intelligence, and creativity, it took on the AIDS crisis with an indefatigable, ingenious, and multifaceted attack on the corporations, institutions, governments, and individuals who stood in the way of AIDS treatment for all. They stormed the FDA and NIH in Washington, DC, and started needle exchange programs in New York; they took over Grand Central Terminal and fought to change the legal definition of AIDS to include women; they transformed the American insurance industry, weaponized art and advertising to push their agenda, and battled - and beat - The New York Times, the Catholic Church, and the pharmaceutical industry. Their activism, in its complex and intersectional power, transformed the lives of people with AIDS and the bigoted society that had abandoned them.

Based on more than 200 interviews with ACT UP members and rich with lessons for today’s activists, Let the Record Show is a revelatory exploration - and long-overdue reassessment - of the coalition’s inner workings, conflicts, achievements, and ultimate fracture. Schulman, one of the most revered queer writers and thinkers of her generation, explores the how and the why, examining, with her characteristic rigor and bite, how a group of desperate outcasts changed America forever, and in the process created a livable future for generations of people across the world.

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2021 Sarah Schulman (P)2021 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

Buzzfeed Best Books of the Year, 2021

PEN Literary Award - Finalist, 2022

NPR Best Book of the Year, 2021

New York Magazine Best Books of the Year, 2021

Lambda Literary Award - Winner, 2022

An epic and important oral history

I learned so much detailed, human history from this book. I’m working on a dissertation that uses microhistory and oral history to tell a specific historical narrative of a time and place and the activists and their work in that historical space, so this format for telling a compelling narrative was wonderful to see in action. What a huge feat by Schulman & her colleague who have been recording for well over a decade. The narration can sometimes be tricky, not by the fault of the narrator but due to the nature of her having to read out so many transcriptions of oral histories. Essentially she’s the third line in a game of telephone, so sometimes the cadence and the “ums” and “you knows” she’s reading don’t sound natural how they must have in the original oral histories. That said, I enjoyed this oral companion to the enormous book. It provides overwhelming evidence of a crucial truth of history: regular people - not saints, and certainly not perfect people - are the enactors of social justice. We are all flawed and we are all capable of powerful action in the face of power.

Must read history

This history was inspiring, specific, and well organized. It dispelled beliefs I had about the middle class cis whiteness of act up. Sometimes in audiobook format it can be hard to follow, since quotations from interviews are long.

Legendary activists

Part history, part manual
Required reading for so many of us trying to change the world

Thank you to all involved and RIP to all who have passed

Wow — just, wow. I am now interested in exploring the associated online content.
Thank you, Sarah Schulman and anyone who was affiliated with ACT UP.

Narration makes it difficult to enjoy

I bought this book because I found the topic so interesting and definitely forgotten in today’s society.

While I still consider this a tour du force of learning and discovery, the narration is very distracting and significantly takes away from the overall experience. As explained in another review it is the stop-start breaking up one cohesive sentence into two that is most annoying. I read that before buying the book and thought “I’m sure it’s not that bad”, but it really is. Buy the written version or none at all.