Second Chances

"Second Chances provides insight of impressive range and depth into the impact of global health programs. It moves medical anthropology's theoretical agenda along by offering a subtle but sharp critique of contemporary manifestations of biological/therapeutic citizenship. Yet its greatest innovation may be methodological. As a convincing work of collective ethnography, Second Chances reveals the productive potential of 'team' or 'project' anthropology."
- Vinh-Kim Nguyen, author of The Republic of Therapy: Triage and Sovereignty in West Africa's Time of AIDS

"Bringing classic social anthropology questions to contemporary biopolitical contexts, Second Chances resituates the center of gravity in HIV/AIDS care around the concerns of its patients. The authors make clear the vital role of kinship, patronage, generation, and the economic and bodily concerns of everyday life in determining life amid shifting regimes of global health. With its superb use of extended cases, lively prose, and compelling analysis, Second Chances sets a new standard for collaborative scholarship."
- Julie Livingston, author of Improvising Medicine: An African Oncology Ward in an Emerging Cancer Epidemic

“The stories are compelling, and the analytical chapters do a good job connecting contemporary developments with the existing anthropology of HIV/AIDS…. Recommended.” - M. M. Heaton, Choice

“Second Chances is recommended reading for anyone interested in the experiences of people with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. This is also a good book for anyone who is thinking about health systems. One of Whyte’s points that I found particularly important is that people do not simply access treatment, but achieve it.” - Anita Chary, Global Health Hub

“This is a unique study because it focuses on individuals and how disease and health care affects them. It provides a glimpse at a culture that is rarely covered, as well. Academic libraries supporting social sciences and health sciences programs will want to add this fascinating look at HIV/AIDS from a singular perspective to their collections."  - Barbara Bibel, Library Journal

“Readers familiar with the work of Susan Reynolds Whyte and her colleagues will not be disappointed in this compelling book. In the end, the lesson of Second Chances is that reliance on ‘contingent sociality’ means that not everyone who needs ARTs can get them. The chance for a second chance, therefore, is inherently fragile and unequal. Reynolds Whyte and colleagues offer no solutions, but the moving stories of survival and striving for both a living and a life remind us of the work that remains” - Janet W. McGrath, Medical Anthropology Quarterly

"Second Chances is an excellent source of health narratives about negotiating HIV status in Uganda. Second Chances will naturally interest anthropologists of East Africa, HIV and biosociality." - Jason Johnson Peretz, Somatosphere

"Second Chances offers a rigorous and vivid look at the first generation of Ugandans with AIDS to have relatively wide access to antiretroviral therapy . . . . The book is a compelling chronicle of the terms of this 'life sentence'." - Tyler Zoanni, Social Anthropology

"The book is a great resource for anyone interested in: the rollout of ART in an African context; Ugandan kinship and social relations; collaborative ethnographic work; and the anthropology of chronic illness. . . . Each chapter opens with a rich ethnographic story that captures the imagination as well as it illustrates the main theme of the chapter. I was particularly drawn to Suzan’s case illustrating mobility and transport. I could not think of when I had last read such a rich, compelling and illuminating account of the distance people go (literally and figuratively) for their health, and would be quick to assign this to students if exploring the topics of transport and mobility." - Megan Wainwright, Center for Medical Humanities