Seven Pillars of Wisdom

author: T.E. Lawrence
name: Kim
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1926
rating: 4
read at: 2018/06/01
date added: 2018/07/14
shelves:
review:
The movie is one of my all time favourites, the man an intriguing character of a tragic period of history. I have always had the sense that if the British generals (and more importantly the politicians) had listened a bit more to T E Lawrence (and Gertrude Bell) the Middle East just might have been a different place today. But of course, they didn’t – it was all about power – divide and conquer. Lawrence’s incredibly detailed account goes a long way to reveal why they could do so with ease in Arab lands that weren’t really countries, but diverse communities of nomads and tribes with no real notion of nationhood. United only by a common enemy, the Ottoman Turks.
The detailed narrative does get a bit tedious after a while, but at the same time it is also fascinating and very, very impressive in the detailed recollection. Lawrence was no doubt a complex man, full of contradictions, fiercely intelligent and with an acute observer of both his surroundings and the men (and there are only men) he encounters.
For anyone interested in the history of Word War I in general and the Middle East in particular it should be mandatory reading.