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

Finalist for the 2014 National Book Critics Circle Award in BiographyOne of the Best Books of the Year:The Christian Science MonitorNPRThe Seattle Times St. Louis Post-Dispatch Chicago TribuneA New York Times Notable BookThe 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.