Synopsis:
The Arab Revolt against the Turks in World War One was, in the words of T.E. Lawrence, 'a sideshow of a sideshow'. Amidst the slaughter in European trenches, the Western combatants paid scant attention to the Middle Eastern theatre. As a result, the conflict was shaped to a remarkable degree by a small handful of adventurers and low-level officers far removed from the corridors of power. At the centre of it all was Lawrence. In early 1914 he was an archaeologist excavating ruins in the sands of Syria; by 1917 he was battling both the enemy and his own government to bring about the vision he had for the Arab people. Operating in the Middle East at the same time, but to wildly different ends, were three other important players: a German attache, an American oilman and a committed Zionist. The intertwined paths of these four young men - the schemes they put in place, the battles they fought, the betrayals they endured and committed - mirror the grandeur, intrigue and tragedy of the war in the desert.
Review:
"'Lawrence in Arabia is a fascinating book, the best work of military history in recent memory and an illuminating analysis of issues that still loom large today' (Janet Maslin, New York Times) 'The research in this book is so daringly original, and the writing so spectacular, that it feels like I'm reading about the topic for the first time.' (Sebastian Junger, bestselling author of The Perfect Storm) 'Here is an intimate history painted on a very large canvas, with one fantastically charismatic - and fabulously flawed - man at the dusty center of the tale.' (Hampton Sides, bestselling author of Ghost Soldiers) 'A startlingly rich and revealing portrait of one of history's most iconic figures... Lovers of big 20th-century history will be in nirvana.' (Tom Reiss, bestselling author of The Orientalist and The Black Count) 'Thrillingly, Scott Anderson's Lawrence in Arabia does [real justice to the bureaucratic fumblings, the myriad spies, heroes and villains, the dense fugue of humanity at its best and worst operating in the Mideast war theater of 1914-17...] weaving enormous detail into its 500-plus pages with a propulsive narrative thread.' (USA Today)"
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.