"With Lawrence in Arabia" by Lowell Thomas is a fast-paced and fascinating book that is equal parts fact and fiction. Thomas had experience in the army and traveled to far-off places, thus he garnered more than enough experience to be able to write a compelling adventure story for people to love.
One of the Best Books of the Year: The Christian Science Monitor NPR The Seattle Times St. Louis Post-Dispatch Chicago Tribune A New York Times Notable Book Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography The Arab Revolt against the Turks in World War I was, in the words of T. E. Lawrence, “a sideshow of a sideshow.” 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 center of it all was Lawrence himself. In early 1914 he was an archaeologist excavating 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.
Michael Korda’s Hero is an epic biography of the mysterious,Englishman whose daring exploits made him an object of intense fascination, known the world over as ‘Lawrence of Arabia. An Oxford Scholar and archaeologist, T.E. Lawrence was sent to Cairo as an intelligence officer in 1916 and vanished into the desert in 1917. He united and led the Arab tribes to defeat the Turks and eventually capture Damascus, an adventure he recorded in the classic Seven Pillars of Wisdom. A born leader, utterly fearless and seemingly impervious to pain and danger, he remained modest, and retiring. Farsighted diplomat, brilliant military strategist, the first media celebrity, and acclaimed writer, Lawrence was a visionary whose achievements transcended his time: had his vision for the modern Middle East been carried through, the hatred and bloodshed that have since plagued the region might have prevented. The democratic reforms he would have implemented as British High Commissioner of Egypt, are those the Egyptians are now demanding, 91 years later. Ultimately, as this magisterial work demonstrates, Lawrence remains the paradigm of the hero in modern times.
Americans have always shown a fascination with the people, customs, and legends of the "East--witness the popularity of the stories of the Arabian Nights, the performances of Arab belly dancers and acrobats, the feats of turban-wearing vaudeville magicians, and even the antics of fez-topped Shriners. In this captivating volume, Susan Nance provides a social and cultural history of this highly popular genre of Easternized performance in America up to the Great Depression. According to Nance, these traditions reveal how a broad spectrum of Americans, including recent immigrants and impersonators, behaved as producers and consumers in a rapidly developing capitalist economy. In admiration of the Arabian Nights, people creatively reenacted Eastern life, but these performances were also demonstrations of Americans' own identities, Nance argues. The story of Aladdin, made suddenly rich by rubbing an old lamp, stood as a particularly apt metaphor for how consumer capitalism might benefit each person. The leisure, abundance, and contentment that many imagined were typical of Eastern life were the same characteristics used to define "the American dream." The recent success of Disney's Aladdin movies suggests that many Americans still welcome an interpretation of the East as a site of incredible riches, romance, and happy endings. This abundantly illustrated account is the first by a historian to explain why and how so many Americans sought out such cultural engagement with the Eastern world long before geopolitical concerns became paramount.
First published in 1976, John Mack's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography humanely and objectively explores the relationship between T.E. Lawrence's inner life and his historically significant actions. Extensive research provides the basis for Mack's sensitive investigation of the psychological dimensions of Lawrence's personality and with the history, sociology, and politics of his time. 27 photos.
27 Articles is Lawrence of Arabia’s classic set of guidelines on military leadership in the Middle East. The 100th anniversary edition features a new introduction by foreign policy expert John Hulsman and a new afterword from CBS News President David Rhodes, addressing the articles’ lasting lessons. In 1916, T.E. Lawrence was deployed to the Arabian Peninsula to aid with the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire. It was the middle of World War I and the British command was throwing its weight behind the long-rebellious southern territories of the Ottoman Empire. Lawrence had extraordinary success fighting alongside the coalition of Arab revolutionaries, and his story has since become legend. Worried that Lawrence would die on the battlefield and that his knowledge would vanish with him, British command asked Lawrence to write out a series of guidelines on his own tactics and teachings. 27 Articles, the text of Lawrence’s guidelines, has become required reading for military leaders. Lawrence’s deployment was the West’s first modern involvement in war in the Middle East, and his campaign held myriad lessons for future generations. Despite being a century old, the articles are deeply prescient on the challenges America has faced in its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Terse and to the point, Lawrence’s articles begin on the battlefield but their value extends well beyond, into the fields of management, leadership, and business. On the 100th anniversary of 27 Articles’ original publication, foreign policy John Hulsman and CBS News President David Rhodes now speak to the articles’ ongoing importance, outlining the wisdom they hold for political, military, and business leaders on into the future.
During the 1920s--in the aftermath of the Arab revolt against Britain--T. E. Lawrence gained global attention, both for his involvement in the Middle Eastern anti-imperialist movement, and for his vivid and sensational writings about his experiences. Following World War I, his appointment as an advisor to Winston Churchill--nearly simultaneous with the release of an American documentary about the revolt--further charged the T. E. Lawrence mania. Despite the emergence of a whole new set of problems in the Middle East, and fueled by the classic status of the epic movie Lawrence of Arabia, the T. E. Lawrence mystique continues to fascinate. Controversial and provocative, this revised and updated edition of Lawrence James's acclaimed biography penetrates and overturns the mythology that surrounds T. E. Lawrence. With access to previously unavailable documents, James traces the sometimes spurious Lawrence legend back to its truthful roots, peeling back the layers of Lawrence's calculated public persona to reveal the gifted, tortured man behind the shimmering myth. Yet James remains dispassionate and generous in spirit throughout. The Golden Warrior presents readers with a fascinating study of one of the twentieth century's most remarkable figures.
A brilliant narrative history tracing today’s troubles back to the grandiose imperial overreach of Great Britain and the United States. Kingmakers is the gripping story of how the modern Middle East came to be, as told through the lives of the Britons and Americans who shaped it. Some are famous (Lawrence of Arabia and Gertrude Bell); others infamous (Harry St. John Philby, father of Kim); some forgotten (Sir Mark Sykes, Israel’s godfather, and A. T. Wilson, the territorial creator of Iraq). All helped enthrone rulers in a region whose very name is an Anglo-American invention. The aim of this engrossing character-driven narrative is to restore to life the colorful figures who gave us the Middle East in which Americans are enmeshed today.