Lawrence in Arabia - Scott Anderson

How to uncover the man behind the legend of TE Lawrence? Certainly Lawrence was one of his own most successful mythologists. Seven Pillars of Wisdom casts a critical eye not only upon the "revolt in the desert" but upon the man who would direct it, and who would eventually be undone by it. Scott Anderson's account strives to situate TE Lawrence within the broader theater of the Arab Revolt, which, by Lawrence's own account, was "a sideshow of a sideshow" to the calamitous war which divided the western world. Lawrence is both a man apart and of his time, thus Anderson's protagonist remains somewhat enigmatic to the reader, as he may be to both Anderson and himself. As a historical actor this is one of Lawrence's strengths: he remains a riddle; or even a canvas upon which we may cast the best, and perhaps the worst, of ourselves. His humanity speaks to the reader, urging us to wonder how our own actions and values compare; both as we idealize them and embody them.

Anderson reminds us that this hero, Lawrence of Arabia, for all his outsize accomplishment, was a major player in a relatively minor theater upon the global stage. As was captured at the end of David Lean's masterpiece, once the fighting was over, more seasoned, powerful, perhaps cynical and maybe less informed minds took to the task of carving up the Middle East. As a man of humane letters we are left wondering if more of Lawrence's insight and spirit might have put the region on a less destructive path. Anderson's work centers upon Lawrence and a handful of his contemporaries who sought to shape the region and were largely eclipsed by the political vagaries of powerful victorious nations following the conflict. We are left to believe that the last throes of imperialism remain evident across the Middle East, and that our world is still dealing with the consequences.

But, of course, Lawrence too was an imperial character. His was an imperialism fated to end. Lawrence could scarcely have existed outside of his British upbringing, or been given such a freehand with a region of people while still being largely supported by the vast British military were it not for the imperial world he inhabited. Lawrence's early travels in the regions left him well positioned to play his British and Arab fellows against one another. Though his motives may have seemed noble, we do well to recognize that Lawrence himself wondered whether this was the case. Just as the colonial and imperial system was crashing down in the ruin of World War I, a new world was being born in which the old modes of governance and international relations were being redefined. TE Lawrence was educated and dreamed in the manner of the disappearing world. Yet his time in the Middle East may have pulled him forward into a new world in which these old approaches no longer provided sufficient answers to life's contradictions. As Anderson tells it, Lawrence was unable to escape his years in the desert and was unable to move beyond the lived and dreamed conflicts he saw and experienced within himself. Lawrence's tragedy is the clash of times coming together, as well as those tearing him apart.