The Illustrious dead / Talty, Stephan

Explores how typhus ended Napoleon's quest to rule the world, describing how the microscopic organism destroyed his military forces and their chances of conquering Russia and revealing how the microbe has influenced other aspects of world history.

In a dual narrative that pits the heights of human ambition and achievement against the supremacy of nature, Stephan Talty tells the story of a mighty ruler and a tiny microbe, antagonists whose struggle would shape the modern world. --from publisher descriptioin.