Lawrence in Arabia - Scott Anderson

[Ghazala]

Max Hastings reviewing the latest book on Lawrence in The Sunday Times yesterday.

Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East by Scott Anderson

..........

David Cameron plunged himself into hot water two years ago, by casually asserting on a visit to Pakistan that Britain has been responsible for most of the troubles in the world. Grown-up prime ministers do not avow such things, but there was a scintilla of substance in the remark. For a century or two this country arbitrated the affairs of many nations, and made a special botch of the Middle East.

The allied belligerents in the First World War became progressively committed to securing booty to justify the conflicts appalling costs. The French and British focused upon apportioning the properties of the tottering Ottoman Empire, the former determined to have Syria and Lebanon, the latter to gain suzerainty over modern Iraq for its oil, Palestine, Trans-Jordan and Saudi Arabia. This later became known in Whitehall circles as the Great Loot.

In pursuit of their aims, the British sought to promote a tribal revolt against the Turks. From late in 1916 they did this most notably through the person of the 28-year-old Thomas Edward Lawrence, as well as the disbursement of tons of gold and an even heavier weight of false promises about Arab freedom.

Scott Anderson writes: French imperial avarice fuelled British imperial competition, so that the truly independent Arab nation was now to be largely limited to the desert wastelands of Arabia. The two allied negotiators in this carve-up, Sir Mark Sykes and François Georges-Picot, took it for granted that Arabs were incapable of self-government. They would thus be merely exchanging vassal status under the Turks for the same condition under the French and British.

Lawrence, though, became an unhappy agent in this subterfuge. He later recalled that the reaction of his colleagues on the military intelligence staff in Cairo, on learning of the Sykes-Picot deal, was a collective urge to vomit. He soon signalled his commitment to Arab rather than British interests by revealing the agreement (one of his countrys darker secrets) to his Arab intermediary, the Emir of Hejazs third son, Prince Faisal.

All this is fascinating, but what is the case for revisiting the story? The authors answer is to set Lawrences experience in the context of the doings of other foreign players: the principal German agent, Curt Prüfer; the Jewish agronomist Aaron Aaronsohn, an ardent Zionist who created a Palestinian spy network for the British; and a young American, William Yale, who lived in Turkish territory for much of the war, then became an American intelligence liaison officer. All three left extensive papers or memoirs, which Anderson has mined effectively.

Prüfers story is relatively well-known: he was a passionate, intelligent but clumsy intriguer, whose attempts to raise an Arab jihad against the British were comically unsuccessful. Aaronsohn is a more intriguing figure. He and Lawrence first met early in 1917, and realised that their ambitions for the region were wholly at odds. He wrote of the slightly built young officer: An archeologist very well-informed on Palestine questions but rather conceited. Aaronsohn regarded the local Arabs as squalid, superstitious, ignorant, and was impatient to dispossess them in favour of Jewish settlers.

Yales unpublished account of his years in wartime Palestine, striving not for his country but for Standard Oil, is a useful source, but he played too insignificant a role to justify the space he gets in this book. Lawrence himself is so inexhaustibly interesting that a reader sighs whenever Anderson turns aside from him to address the doings of the others.

Even those who know the Lawrence story well must continue to marvel at the manner in which this cynical, romantic, frail superman and intellectual adventurer rose between January and December 1917 from Cairo headquarters dogsbody to become the most influential force in the Arab revolt. Detractors brand him a charlatan. But how can that view be sustained in the face of the record his brilliant mastery of the Bedouin tribes; the epic camel rides and train-blowing exploits; his rise to commune with generals and statesmen almost as an equal? A supreme egoist, Lawrence was, of course; sometimes an exhibitionist and deceiver; but surely no charlatan.

Andersons grasp of military affairs, especially the war beyond the Middle East, is shaky. But he displays a masterly understanding of the politics of the region, and a fine judgment on Lawrence himself. He is cautious where caution is essential, for instance about the notorious Deraa incident of November 1917. We must agree, he says, that something happened there, but we shall never know what; Lawrences own tale of bodily violation by the Turks who captured him, followed by easy escape, simply does not add up.

The authors description of Lawrences guerrilla campaign is also first-rate. The book acknowledges the ghastly cruelties, especially to prisoners, which took place within Lawrences command, as they do in every guerrilla war.

Anderson makes a highly intelligent contribution to the Lawrence literature. He concludes, inevitably, by wringing his hands about the Franco-British carve-up at Versailles, a disgrace compounded by the new betrayal of the Arabs represented by the 1917 Balfour Declaration, promising a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

Lawrences brilliance, coupled to his huge vulnerability, render him a perpetual object of fascination. He did remarkable things during his brief time as Arabias kingmaker. But even had he been granted carte blanche to reshape the polity of the Middle East, it is most unlikely he would have done better than anybody else. The region remains today, as it was then, susceptible only to management rather than solutions.

Atlantic £25/ebook £15.99

[David Filsell]

The book's had a number of other very good reviews

[Martin Bennitt]

I can also recommend this book, which as the review says is very good on the regional politics. I really knew only the basics about Lawrence before, so it was very informative in that respect also, with details of his early life as well as his role in the Arab Revolt.

Cheers Martin B

[michaeldr]

I have not seen this book yet, but certainly intend to look out for it

As well as the good reviews above, it was mentioned and recommended last evening by Mr Ephraim HaLevi, who spoke at this event http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=234488#entry2341375

[Kitchener's Bugle]

Thanks for the notification /comments ..... how would you say that the book ranks alongside others? What would be your personal recommended title on Lawrence?

Thanks

KB

[Martin Bennitt]

How many books have been written about Lawrence? There must be dozens and I haven't read enough to single any one out as the definitive work. But a more recent book I can also recommend if Anthony Sattin's 'The Young T.E. Lawrence', which focuses on his archaeological work in the Middle East before the war. It makes it clear that he would probably have been a leading world archaeologist if the war had not broken out. One review here, but there are others:

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/nov/02/young-lawrence-a-portrait-of-the-legend-as-a-young-man-review

Cheers Martin B

[Kitchener's Bugle]

How many indeed Martin.... that's why I am asking

Personally I like to gather personal recommendations rather then go with the promoters or critics.

Thanks for the link

KB

[David Filsell]

It's worth laying your hands on Suliman Moussa's book, an Arab view of TEL. He's "heard different" about many of the man's claims. Equally the English book by Aldington which pricked the TEL bubble, and over which the great man's deeply strange brother made Aldington's life an absolute hell is well worth reading. As I have said before on the forum, there is much that Lawrence said of himself that must be treated with great caution. I am totally unable to make my mind up about him after much reading of and by him. That said, at he very least, I have a feeling that his worth has been exaggerated and it would be of huge value if there were accounts available from other British officers involved at the time in the revolt

[michaeldr]

Just now purchased this book from Abe

and I remembered to use the GWF link

Win-Win