Lawrence, a British Army major, medically unfit for active duty was an Oxford scholar and linguist who excelled at military intelligence. The British under General Allenby based in Eqypt were fighting a conventional WW1 battle of artillery and massed infantry attacks against the Turks in Palestine. On the other hand it conveys brilliantly the characters, countryside, conditions and the day to day action. Consequently it has many different variants on place names, often fails to clarify the vast array of characters in the Arab army or the overall development of the war. He hated it and refused to allow even the most basic editing.

Lawrence wrote his memoirs of the WW1 war against the Ottoman Empire as a 780 page long book 'The seven pillars of wisdom' but heavily in debt was forced by his publishers to rush out an abridged version. The politics are of interest and his opinions of the British Army are scathing.Ī book from the past that informs the present and the future The text can be rather tedious with endless descriptions on types of sand and terrain (because it was lifted from a diary that logged such matters) but when he writes on insurgency strategy I sat up and paid attention. It's a kind of Sun Tsu for the 20th Century - The Art of Insurgency.įor anyone who wants to understand how a few thousand men can tie down an army of millions this is a must read. In this book Lawrence writes down the very basics of guerrilla warfare which all insurgency is based upon. I re-read the book because one of my colleagues asked how Islamic State had been so successful in Syria and North Iraq.īefore I recommended this book to him I gave it a read just in case my old memory was playing tricks.īut my memory was true. This version of events is more accessible than Seven Pillars and most of the more outre episodes ( which people who knew him say were total fantasy) are not included. I find its views poignant and relevent to our world as it is much more than a great history. This was the second draft of this experiance, the first, with a word count at least twice this ones size (by an easy couple of hundred thousand words) was lost, the sole copy of which he left sitting on a English train station bench, never to be seen again.Ĭopies of this version are scarce but not immpossible to find, and well worth the search. Irreverent and honest, he speaks casually of his great impact on the area and the nature of the rich cultures he encounters, the terrible privations he and his compatriots underwent, the black cruelty as well as the acts of spontanious nobility encountered with a voice that lays each to stand for themselves, bare and uncolored by the need to justify or package. The basis for the great movie, Lawrence of Arabia, it stands very well upon its own legs.

Lawrences classic history/biography of his involvment in the middle east during the War To End All wars.

Revolt in the desert te lawrence 1927