This book is recommended for those that have an open mind. Alan Berkman was the all-American college student, as he was an Eagle Scout, president of his fraternity, and a football player. You couldn't get a more squeaky image of someone. However, once he started medical school he became radicalized and became part of a group that bombed government buildings after the government began watching him. After spending decades in some of the worst prisons and surviving cancer twice, he became an advocate for those affected with HIV/AIDS and spent the rest of his life working to save millions of lives. This story is inspirational and shows how one person can truly make a difference despite having made mistakes in their past.

A thought-provoking read that demands the reader's careful consideration at multiple levels. On one level it is a powerful biographical narrative of one man's journey in search of social justice—a search that transformed him from a promising medical student and fraternity president to a radical revolutionary who participated in symbolic bombings of institutions of state power to finally a global health activist who came to believe that his medical skills "when shared with activists and those most harmed by racist, sexist and neo-imperialist policies might actually be more revolutionary" than armed resistance. The author uses Berkman's published papers and private letters to trace the evolution of his political thought and his ongoing efforts to reconcile his increasing desire to be a revolutionary with his refusal to kill: "I was equally convinced that revolutionary change must be an assertion of life, optimism, and respect for humanity, and not primarily an act of destruction." As the author notes, this early position of Berkman’s was characterized by a certain romanticism, suggesting that "he had read more theory than history, more novels than fiction." And yet, as the author painstakingly details, against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, police brutality, rampant racism, and government lies, having faith in the system to introduce meaningful reform appeared equally naïve to many young Americans who opted for violence resistance. The author's vivid descriptions of these times introduce the next level at which this monograph operates, i.e., as a history of a turbulent era of protests and radical revolutionary groups demanding social change and as a history of racism, incarceration and inequality in access to healthcare in the United States. Sadly, as the author notes, this latter history remains unresolved and demands that we examine why earlier efforts failed: "Writing about their efforts to be antiracists in the face of the Black Lives Matter movement, and globalists in the face of growing nationalism, is now to wonder again why they did not succeed, and what steps they did not take but should have. Historians are trained not to ask 'what if' questions, but it does hang over everything we write like Clio's haint, the spirit of the dead." These final words introduce yet another level at which this monograph operates, i.e., as an indictment of the racism and international military adventurism that continues to inform US policy at home and abroad. It points to the continuing relevance of the questions with which Alan Berkman struggled: How do we achieve social justice? How do we move beyond producing and reproducing the dynamics of inequality?

I'd heard of Dr Berkman, but didn't really know any details about his life. Rather than going through the "normal" process of campus radical to "upstanding member of society," he took a different path. Went through med school, became a doctor...then he took a sharp left into radicalism. From helping revolutionary groups with medical care to directly participating in bombings, his story is definitely different than the others you've heard from the 60s and 70s. After being released from prison, he went back to practicing medicine and, in his most revolutionary contribution to society, pressured to get American policy changed to make treatment AIDS more available.

Fascinating story very well told by the author.