DESC: Now, a decade after AIDS was first recognized, there is increasing evidence that analogies to the past can be misleading, as they usually are in the history of war or economics or anything else. In this essay we summarize and criticize the brief historiography of the epidemic and suggest research questions and methods that may lead to more valid and useful historical writing. We then introduce the essays in this volume, essays that lead us in the directions we have proposed as both necessary and useful. - from the Introduction.