A wealth of new research and thinking on Lawrence, the Arab Revolt, and World War One in the Middle East, providing essential background to today's violent conflicts Rarely is a book published that revises our understanding of an entire world region and the history that has defined it. This groundbreaking volume makes just such a contribution. Neil Faulkner draws on ten years of field research to offer the first truly multidisciplinary history of the conflicts that raged in Sinai, Arabia, Palestine, and Syria during the First World War. In Lawrence of Arabia's War, the author rewrites the history of T. E. Lawrence's legendary military campaigns in the context of the Arab Revolt. He explores the intersections among the declining Ottoman Empire, the Bedouin tribes, nascent Arab nationalism, and Western imperial ambition. The book provides a new analysis of Ottoman resilience in the face of modern industrialized warfare, and it assesses the relative weight of conventional operations in Palestine and irregular warfare in Syria. Faulkner thus reassesses the historic roots of today's divided, fractious, war-torn Middle East.

A new study of Captain T. E. Lawrence "of Arabia," his ideas on warfare, and the context of the military campaigns, the peace settlements, and the legacies that followed. One hundred years ago, Captain Lawrence and an unlikely band of Arab irregulars captured the strategic port of Aqaba after an epic journey through waterless tracts of desert. Their attacks on railways during the Great War are well known and have become the stuff of legend, but while Lawrence himself has been the subject of fascinating biographies, as well as an award-winning film, the context of his war in the desert, and his ideas on war itself, are less well-known. This new title offers a high-paced evaluation of T. E. Lawrence “of Arabia” and the British military operations in the Near East, revising and adding to conventional narratives in order to tell the full story of this influential figure, as well as the Ottoman-Turkish perspective, and the Arabs' position, within the context of the war. It is also a study of warfare and the manner in which Lawrence, and others, made their assessments of what was changing, what was distinctive, and what was unique to the desert environment. This book sets Lawrence in context, examines the peace settlement he participated in, and describes how Lawrence's legacy has informed and inspired those partnering and mentoring local forces to the present day.

A new biography of Lawrence of Arabia T.E. Lawrence is one of the most enigmatic characters in British history. At the outbreak of the First World War he was working as an archaeologist in the Middle East. He had no military training at all, and a strong distrust of politicians and senior officers alike. And yet he succeeded in a task where all these people had failed: not only did he unite the Arab nation - a nation at perpetual war with itself - but he also led them to victory against the Ottoman Empire. How he managed to achieve these incredible feats has fascinated and confounded historians ever since. The myths that have grown up around this remarkable man have been enhanced by the untruths Lawrence himself propagated. He was never captured and tortured by the Turks as he claimed, neither was he the first to target Ottoman troops by dynamiting their trains. And yet the truth is every bit as compelling as the fiction. He was far more ruthless than he portrayed himself, and the battles he fought were every bit as barbarous as those fought by his Ottoman enemies. He was also strangely determined not to take credit for his achievements: when offered the VC at Buckingham Palace he refused it, leaving the king holding the box. This brand new biography by the author of RORKE'S DRIFT uses primary sources to uncover the truth from all the fictions that surround this legendary man. It covers the actualities of the war Lawrence fought in greater detail than ever before, and also describes what happened to Lawrence after the war.

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.

The writings presented in this volume shed tremendous light, both on the character of T. E. Lawrence and the current situation in the Middle East. Despite being written more than seventy years ago, the thoughts of Lawrence of Arabia remain remarkably pertinent. This collection includes Lawrence’s wartime reports from the desert, along with later writings in which Lawrence attempts to cope with the consequences of war in the circumstances of peace. Many of the pieces have previously only been issued in limited editions.

Greed and intrigue combine explosively in this gripping, masterly account of a key moment in the history of the Middle East, and a portrait of T.E. Lawrence--Lawrence of Arabia himself--that is bright, nuanced, and full of fresh insights into the true nature of the master mythmaker. Photos. Maps.

"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.

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.

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.

“Written with great accuracy, detail, enthusiasm, and insight . . . a new perspective on the well-trodden story of the Arab Revolt” (Military History Matters on its Book of the Year, Silver Award–winner). Striking where the enemy is weakest and melting away into the darkness before he can react. Never confronting a stronger force directly, but using audacity and surprise to confound and demoralize an opponent. Operations driven by good intelligence, area knowledge, mobility, speed, firepower, and detailed planning, and executed by a few specialists with indigenous warriors—this is unconventional warfare. T. E. Lawrence was one of the earliest practitioners of modern unconventional warfare. His tactics and strategies were used by men like Mao and Giap in their wars of liberation. Both kept Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom close at hand. This book examines the creation of the “Hedgehog” force, looks at the formation of armored car sections and other units, and focuses on the Hejaz Operations Staff, the Allied officers and men who took Lawrence’s idea and prosecuted it against the Ottoman Turkish army, assisting Field Marshal Allenby to achieve victory in 1918. Stejskal concludes with an examination of how Hedgehog influenced special operations and unconventional warfare, including Field Marshal Wavell, the Long Range Desert Group, and David Stirling’s SAS. “Makes a convincing case that the roots of modern special operations, particularly effective guerrilla warfare, are to be found in British participation in the Arab Revolt against Ottoman Turkish rule during WWI.” —Publishers Weekly