William C. Summers, <i>The American Phage Group: The Founders of Molecular Biology</i> New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2023. Pp. 312. ISBN 978-0-300-26356-5. $65.00 (hardcover).

One cannot think of the field of molecular biology without thinking of the bacteriophage, the bacteria-infecting viruses that were a critical tool for the field.And the scientists making up the American Phage Group, who were instrumental in leveraging this tool to advance biology, have rightfully earned a permanent place in its history.But that there was much more to the establishment of molecular biology as a discipline than any single player is the point that American molecular biologist and historian of science William C. Summers brings out in his new book.Reading this book immediately brought to mind what is considered a foundational text in the history of molecular biology, John Cairns's Phage and the Origins of Molecular Biology (1966), co-edited by Gunther S. Stent and James D. Watson.But, as historically influential as Phage has been, it is not so much about the origins of molecular biology, as it is a collection of essays celebrating the life and achievements of Max Delbrck, one of the leaders of the American Phage Group (APG).Other popular works about the origins of molecular biology, including Andr Lwoof and Agnes Ullmann's Origins of Molecular Biology (1979), William Hayes's Max Delbrck and the Birth of Molecular Biology (1984) and Franklin W. Stahl's We Can Sleep Later (2000), also read as tributes to notable individuals in the field rather than as histories of the field.Whereas these earlier histories of molecular biology were distilled into commemorations of single figures, others have painted the picture in too-broad strokes, as all-encompassing narratives with fewer specific insights.An example is Michael Morange's The Black Box of Biology (2020).Summers strikes a balance between the two approaches, opting to look at the history of the field through the lens of a specific group.He brings into picture additional actorsother people and their backgrounds, and even entire scientific disciplinesin an attempt to deliver a better-balanced history of molecular biology, while still preserving specificity.The book is divided into fourteen chapters, with the first acting as a readers' guide.Chapters 2-5 set up the background: the phage itself, methodological tools and biographies of the various physicists and chemists involved in the advent of molecular biology.From the start, The American Phage Group stands out as more inclusive than a singlenarrative account.Summers adopts a subject-centric approach instead of a person-centric one.He focuses the narrative on the evolution of the groupin terms of both its people and its sciencewith respect to its contribution to molecular biology.He thus brings to light other members of the APG who worked at the same time as the three purported leaders of the group -Delbrck, Salvador Luria and Alfred Hershey.In fact, Chapter 6 is the