Lawrence in Arabia War, deceit, imperial folly and the making of the modern Middle East

Scott Anderson, 1959-

Sound recording - 2013

The Arab revolt against the Turks in World War I 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 center was Lawrence. In early 1914 he was an archaeologist digging ruins in Syria; by 1917 he was riding into legend at the head of an Arab army, as he fought a rearguard action against his own government and its imperial ambitions. Based on four years of intensive primary document research, Lawrence in Arabia definitively overturns received wisdom on how the modern Middle East was formed. Sweeping in its action, keen in its portraiture, acid in its condemnation of the destruction wrought by European colonial plots, this is a book that brilliantly captures... the way in which the folly of the past creates the anguish of the present. more