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The Illustrious Dead: The Terrifying Story Of How Typhus Killed Napoleon's Greatest Army (2009)

by Stephan Talty(Favorite Author)

3.58 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0307394042 (ISBN13: 9780307394040)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Crown

review 1: The Illustrious Dead is well written and completely absorbing, but somewhere along the line I missed the thesis of typhus being responsible for all of the devastation that was wrought. The author even says at one point that Napoleon seemed bored and tired during his Russian campaign, so I sort of had difficulty buying his later assertion that typhus changed the course of world history forever, Russian Revolution wouldn't have happened in the same way, France would still be in charge, etc etc. This is actually a better account of Napoleon's Russian ambitions in general, with a little typhus thrown in. The historical background of the disease and epilogue about how it was studied and used later were interesting, but it seemed strange to play it up as the book's main premise ... morewithout getting into more detail, aside from disease symptoms and glimpses into army hospitals. Otherwise it's a really interesting read, it just might be a little disappointing depending on how strongly you were in it for the typhus.
review 2: I enjoyed this book in terms of the compelling story of the fate of the Grand Army in Russia. However the link to the defeat due to just typhus, and the "what if" speculation seemed a bit tenuous. History is complex and messy and to try and use one factor to account for events risks looking like over simplification. The book also seems torn betweeen whether to be a look at typhus, or a narrative of the Russian campaign. At times they typhus side seems lost, such as the Battle of Borodino. That being said, the battle descriptions are excellent. less

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