Morgan’s book is an attempt to tell the history of tumour virus research by looking at the lives and work of those who shaped this field. Morgan argues that the study of cancer viruses has been much more important for the history of molecular biology in the twentieth century than is generally assumed, and has been neglected by historians. In essence, the book looks at the laboratory studies that can be viewed as leading to the discovery in the 1970s and 1980s of the oncogenes src and ras, and the tumour suppressor p53, starting with Peyton Rous’s experiments in the early twentieth century that suggested that an ‘agent’ in cell-free filtrate was responsible for the transmission of tumours between chickens. We may or may not agree with the premise that ‘the full story of molecular biology’s incredible jumps in understanding remains a mystery’ or ‘represents an unknown unknown’ (p. 1). In fact, historians of twentieth-century life science can draw on a good deal of excellent and relevant literature on the history of molecular biology and even cancer virus research, and Morgan knows and cites this literature. However, that does not mean that there is no need for this book.

Most historians of recent science draw a distinction between insider or participant histories of science on the one hand, usually published in the same journals as research in the respective field, and histories written by professional historians on the other. Insider histories are often better at paying attention to technical minutiae – that is why professional historians like to use them. However, these insider histories can be frustrating when they display ignorance of existing historiography and historical workmanship and a sometimes very naive belief in the inevitability of progress in science. Morgan combines an interest in and an eye for technical details as we usually find them in participant histories with awareness of the historiography of recent life sciences, while drawing on a wide range of unpublished primary sources, especially interviews and archival materials. The book focuses on what happens in the lab and largely relegates observations about social and political contexts to the footnotes (except where they can be seen to interfere with the science, for example in Germany under National Socialism, fascist Italy, or communist Czechoslovakia).

The book is structured chronologically and topically. It starts with a chapter on Rous and other early twentieth-century researchers working with viruses causing tumours in chickens, rabbits and mice, followed by a chapter on what came to be known as the polyoma virus. Along the way, we are looking at virus research taking shape as a field of study, and the emergence and use of approaches that would turn into standard tools, such as cell culture or electron microscopy. There is also a chapter on the discovery of reverse transcriptase and the practical and theoretical implications of the realization that in certain circumstances information could flow from RNA to DNA, rather than only in the other direction, as suggested by what Francis Crick called the central dogma of molecular biology. Other chapters deal with Anthony Epstein, Yvonne Barr and others who did research on the virus that came to be named after the two, and with the people and the research that led to the important discovery that tumour genes found in viruses were also present in the human genome. We visit centres of molecular biology and tumour virus research, such as the California Institute of Technology or the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory – a site of much interest in cancer viruses and oncogenes under James Watson’s leadership, and we meet numerous Nobel laureates along the way. Morgan ends the book with a useful concluding chapter which points to a range of broader issues that he suggests the history of tumour virus research illustrates, such as questions of gender and recognition, the impact of war on science, the importance of model systems and the key roles played by certain institutions and journals.

The focus is on the lives and careers of researchers, but it would be wrong to characterize the book as a series of biographies of virus researchers. Morgan does not spend much time discussing what people did before or after: he focuses on what they did in the laboratory, and what is directly relevant to the tumour virus story he is telling. There is an occasional whiff of hagiography, but perhaps that is difficult to avoid in a book that focuses on the careers of successful researchers, many of them Nobel laureates. A word of warning: while the attention to technical detail is a strength of the book, Morgan takes much for granted, and readers definitely need more than a basic understanding of molecular and cell biology. He assumes that you know what an oncogene, a restriction fragment, lysogeny or a gene translocation are, for example, or an arthropod vector. Historians of the modern life sciences, however, will not consider this a problem and find this book very useful. And I hope it will also find its way into the hands of readers who usually only read the insider histories in scientific journals. They will read it with enjoyment and gain; it will help them to place what they do in the longer history of molecular biology, and tell them where to look if they want to read more.