A Fraught Embrace: The Romance and Reality of AIDS Altruism in Africa

By Ann Swidler and Susan Cotts Watkins *80

Published April 18, 2017

A Fraught Embrace (Princeton University Press) shows how in the wake of the AIDS pandemic many organizations and compassionate individuals descended on Africa from faraway places to offer help. Ann Swidler and Susan Cotts Watkins *80 argue that altruists could ultimately accomplish more good not by seeking to transform African lives but by helping Africans achieve their own goals.