Lawrence in Arabia Book Summary - Lawrence in Arabia Book explained in key points

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Lawrence in Arabia summary

Name: Lawrence in Arabia
Rating: 4.8 (96 reviews)
Author: Scott Anderson

Scott Anderson

War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East

4.8 (96 ratings)

33 mins

Brief summary

'Lawrence in Arabia' by Scott Anderson is a non-fiction book that explores the life and exploits of T.E. Lawrence, a British intelligence officer who helped lead the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire during World War I. It provides insights into the complexities of politics, war, and diplomacy in the Middle East during that time period.

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The Middle East Biographies

Table of Contents

Lawrence in Arabia
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Key idea 1 of 15

What’s in it for me? Experience the drama of World War I that made the Middle East what it is today.

They say that one man can change the course of history – so imagine what happens when you multiply that by four.

During and after World War I, imperial powers divided the Middle East into the countries we know today, and the region became host to a number of lingering conflicts. In the midst of this turbulent period, the actions of four men – T. E. Lawrence, Curt Prüfer, Aaron Aaronsohn and William Yale, each on different sides of the war, each with his own agendas and sympathies – shaped the history of the region and the world.

The following blinks tell the stories of these four men and their endeavors in the Middle East during World War I – stories that read like a real-life John LeCarré thriller, replete with spies, deception and malicious intentions. It is also the story of how the Middle East turned into one of the world’s most politically volatile regions.

In these blinks, you’ll find out

how Prüfer’s connections in the Ottoman Empire swayed the Turks’ allegiances;
why Lawrence’s capture of Aqaba turned out to be a bittersweet victory; and
why the repercussions of the Sykes-Picot Agreement are still being felt today.

Thomas Edward Lawrence’s deep fascination with history led him to the Middle East.

There’s a chance you may know of T. E. Lawrence, the man made famous in the classic movie Lawrence of Arabia. But you probably know less about the formative years of this man who played such a crucial role in the Middle East during World War I.

Thomas Edward Lawrence was born in 1888. As a middle-class teenager in Oxford, England, he developed an early curiosity in European and Egyptian history, spending most of his free time at the University of Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum.

In 1909, while working on his senior thesis at Oxford, he embarked on a wildly ambitious project: Lawrence walked throughout Syria, studying every castle built during the Crusades to determine whether the Christians learned about architecture from the Muslims or vice versa.

During this trip, Lawrence was met with great hospitality and quickly fell in love with the Middle East.

The staff at Oxford were so impressed by his thesis that he was invited to stay in the Middle East to help out at an archeological dig for his beloved Ashmolean Museum.

By 1911, he was working in Carchemish, an ancient city located on the border of Turkey and Syria.

He got to know Middle Eastern culture very well and, as one of the heads of the excavation site, he proved himself to be a natural leader.

He frequently wrote home to his family, telling them how he felt right at home in Carchemish: he was earning the respect of the locals through his impressive understanding of their history as well as his ability to work long hours under the blistering desert sun.

Lawrence spent the next three years working in Carchemish, during which time Europe and the Middle East wound up on the brink of World War I.

Three other men from different walks of life were also hard at work in the Middle East prior to WWI.

One of them was Curt Prüfer, a 33-year-old German spy.

Prüfer had an early love of foreign languages that led to him becoming an interpreter at the German embassy in Cairo. But Prüfer had greater ambitions and, in 1913, he met some influential people in Egypt who had an interest in disrupting the country’s politics.

“History is often the tale of small moments – chance encounters or casual decisions or sheer coincidence …”

In 1913, the four men – Lawrence, Prüfer, Aaronsohn and Yale – all looked around and noticed the same thing: The Ottoman Empire was in decline.

Once a mighty force, by the start of World War I, the Ottoman Empire was coming apart at the seams.

The horrors of war quickly escalated once the Ottoman Empire chose a side.

As war broke out, lines were quickly drawn between the Allied Powers, led by the British Empire, France and Russia, and the Central Powers, led by Germany and Austria-Hungary. And on November 2, 1914, the Ottoman Empire finally sided with the Central Powers.

Aaronsohn immediately felt the repercussions of this decision.

Lawrence and Yale both cringed at incompetence and deceit they saw around them.

As the war began, William Yale found himself faced with a tricky situation.

After finding some promising areas for Standard Oil to exploit, he was then tasked with securing the land from the Turkish government in a deceitful way.

The Arab Uprising began with negotiations that were rooted in deception.

Lawrence’s opportunity to leave his desk job behind came when an Arab lieutenant in the Ottoman forces surrendered to the British. When he was brought in for questioning, he revealed that there was a large population of Arabs, especially in Mecca, willing to fight against the Turks.

But the Arabs would only promise an alliance with the British under certain conditions, and so negotiations ensued.

The Jewish population of the Middle East also played an influential role in the war.

Meanwhile, Aaron Aaronsohn was growing increasingly concerned with what was going on around him.

In Syria, Aaronsohn witnessed the genocide of the Ottoman Empire’s Armenian population. And he felt it was only a matter of time before the same happened to the Jewish population.

Lawrence and Prüfer found themselves on opposing paths in the thick of the war.

By April of 1917, Lawrence was fully immersed in the world of the Arab Uprising. To avoid sticking out like a sore thumb in the middle of Prince Faisal’s camp, he shed his British uniform and clothed himself from head to toe in Arab garments.

With the war now in its second year, Lawrence knew that the Arabs would have to take decisive action.

Lawrence led a raid on Aqaba that changed the course of the war.

After four days of nearly intolerable desert conditions on the way to Aqaba, Lawrence began doubting his own efforts and became overwhelmed with hopelessness. Arab soldiers around him were dying, some even from snake bites as the venomous reptiles slithered into their warm blankets at night.

He was carrying the bitter knowledge of the Sykes-Picot Agreement, knowing that even if they did take Aqaba, it was all too likely that Arabs would end up being betrayed by the British at the end of the war.

As the war continued, Lawrence’s experiences became more troubling.

But Lawrence cared little for awards and medals. As far as he was concerned, the only benefit his success had was that his superiors were now taking his military strategies more seriously.

Lawrence used this new respect to propose an even more ambitious plan: a synchronized attack by the forces of the British Empire and Arab troops to take the key cities of Damascus and Jerusalem.

Aaronsohn and Yale discovered that the United States had limited interest in the Middle East.

In April of 1917, the United States officially entered World War I by declaring war on Germany. Although it didn’t have an official position on the Middle East, the United States was still interested in what was happening in the region.

This is why when William Yale returned to the United States, he found that the US Bureau of Secret Intelligence was very interested in his information. At the time, this bureau was a small organization run by Assistant Secretary of State Leland Harrison.

As the war continued into 1918, the outcome wasn’t clear for either side.

By the start of 1918, our protagonists had different views of what would happen in the war, especially in the Middle East.

Curt Prüfer believed things were looking up for Germany: the Russian Revolution of 1917 had caused Russia to exit the conflict altogether, which helped Germany gain strength in Eastern Europe.

Fifteen months of war came to a climactic end in Damascus.

In September of 1918, things in Europe and the Middle East were suddenly coming to a close. The United States had arrived in France to push back the Germans and, on September 19, a British Empire offensive began that successfully forced the Turkish troops into a retreat.

At this point, T. E. Lawrence was about to embark on his final outing – but things got off to a grim start.

Despite their best efforts, Yale and Lawrence couldn’t prevent the mistakes of the Paris Peace Conference.

Not long after the fall of Damascus, on October 31, 1918, fighting in the Middle East ended. Then, on November 11, Germany signed an armistice to end the war. But things weren’t settled for everyone.

Since the proposed changes to the Middle East wouldn’t be made official until the Paris Peace Conference in January of 1919, there was still a small chance for Arab independence.

Lawrence spent the rest of his life trying to cope with the betrayals and horrors of WWI.

Lawrence was disgusted with the results of the Paris Peace Conference. His mother said that he would spend entire mornings sitting in the same position, staring into space.

In fact, Lawrence spent much of the remainder of his life trying to distance himself from his past.

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What is Lawrence in Arabia about?

Lawrence in Arabia (2013) reveals how a small cast of characters forever changed the Middle East during World War I and the Arab Revolt. At its center was T. E. Lawrence, a brash and untrained young military officer who was torn between two nations and experienced firsthand the broken promises of politics and the horrors of war.

Best quote from Lawrence in Arabia

History is often the tale of small moments – chance encounters or casual decisions or sheer coincidence …

—Scott Anderson

Who should read Lawrence in Arabia?

Students and historians interested in World War I
People curious about the history of the Middle East
Anyone who likes a thrilling story

About the Author

Scott Anderson is a journalist who has specialized in reporting from war-torn areas such as Lebanon, Israel and Bosnia. His work has appeared in Esquire, Vanity Fair and The New York Times Magazine. His other books include The Man Who Tried to Save the World and The 4 O’Clock Murders.

Categories with Lawrence in Arabia

Biography & Memoir

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