I enjoy reflecting on the movies, TV, books and other media that I consume. I’m notoriously sentimental. This series documents the books that I read. These aren’t reviews or recommendations. Just a list. For me. Mostly so that I can page through what I read, where I was, and when.
Why did I read it?
I purchased this book on Kindle nearly a decade ago. I vaguely remember reading the glowing reviews at the time and thinking that the subject would be fascinating. I was right just late. I finally picked this back up out of the back of my Kindle library after spending the last few months burning through Tom Clancy novels until I found a new author in the series that I could not enjoy. I figured I might as well read about some real geopolitical intrigue.
What is it?
Category
Value
Title
Lawrence in Arabia
Author
Scott Anderson
Year Published
2013
Format
Kindle
Pages
618
ASIN
B00BH0VSPI
Publisher Summary
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.
How did I read it?
Category
Value
Date Started
January 22, 2024
Date Finished
April 6, 2024
Places Read
Hospital da Luz, Lisbon
Notes - No Spoilers
I really appreciated the positioning of Lawrence, Yale, Aaronsohn, and Prüfer in the book and how much their real lives overlapped or influenced one another. The wars and regions were large but the players confined to a pretty small circle.
The anecdotes about Lawrence add up to a pretty straightforward reason he was able to accomplish what he did: he tried to blend. Anderson breaks down how the entire generation of British minor aristocracy administered the Empire by just showing up and being British. Lawrence balked at the idea that “Europeans don’t walk in Syria” and learned the language and showed up in remote villages. He understood the place.
Both sides desperately wanted to use the Arabs through their Hashemite leaders. And they did so in such a cartoonishly manipulative way - trying to coax anti-colonial fervor out against the Ottomans just to open up a new front in a war that the Europeans hoped would result in their position as the new colonial rules of the region.
Prüfer’s story is almost more interesting in a twisted way. Also highlights the wild relationship between Germany and the Jewish community at the time. A raging anti-semite who had a romantic affair with the sister of the future President of Israel so that he could convince her to spy for Germany. A future Nazi party official who was part of a foreign ministry desperate to win over the Jewish population after seeing the British become the most vocal state supporter of the Zionist cause. A man who faked his own death after escaping Brazil and showed up years later teaching under an alias in India.
The relationship between Faisal ibn Hussein and Lawrence seems to be the only honest one in the book.
“The core problem, in Lawrence’s estimation, was that Great Britain had yet to grasp what was best for her, and he simply didn’t have time to explain.”
The repeated instances where Lawrence blamed communication delays so that he could ignore orders made me smile.
Lawrence, a white archeologist operating in the Middle East, had a serious fear of snakes? Sounds familiar.
The creeping rise of the Saud family made me want to read an entire history on that specific story. The Hashemites obsession with creating a pan-Arab nation centered around Syria creating a power vacuum. The propaganda opportunity of Faisal attempting a joint proposal with the Zionists and negotiating with the Europeans later exploited by the Saudis to movitate their Wahabist followers.
What a mess. No wonder Lawrence was distraught and tried to walk away from it all. To the point that the Arab leaders hoped the United States would intervene and become the colonial power in the region. The last few pages of the last chapter should be required reading for anyone attempting to understand the Middle East today. The UK creating the modern state of Jordan after giving Syria to France, betraying Faisal. Faisal’s attempt at revolution leading to his brother ruling Transjordan and being the only Hashemite to hold on to power to today. The wave of nationalist revolutions in Egypt and Syria and Iraq to overthrow the rulers put in place by the UK and France long after they had mostly left the region.