Setting the Desert on Fire: T. E. Lawrence and Britain's Secret War in Arabia, 1916-1918

Setting the Desert on Fire: T. E. Lawrence and Britain's Secret War in Arabia, 1916-1918
Author: James Barr
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2009-07-06
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0393335275

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.

Setting the Desert on Fire

Setting the Desert on Fire
Author: James Barr
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 483
Release: 2011-11-07
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1408827891

_______________ 'Packs as much punch as one of Lawrence's train-blowing explosives' - Sunday Times 'Barr's cogent, vividly written book puts Lawrence centre stage but does not lose sight of the uprising's larger historical context' - Financial Times '[Barr] introduces fresh materials to give new context to Lawrence and the present difficulties in Iraq' - The Times _______________ The full story behind the desert revolt made famous by T.E. Lawrence in Seven Pillars of Wisdom and the film Lawrence of Arabia It is 1916. The Allies are struggling in the Great War. The Ottoman Sultan calls for a pan-Islamic jihad against all non-Muslims except Germans. But Sharif Husein, ruler of the holy city of Mecca, is smarting under Turkish rule, fomenting Arab nationalism and lobbying the British to support him. It seems to the British a good idea secretly to encourage an Arab revolt. Setting the Desert on Fire is a masterly account of this key moment made legendary by T. E. Lawrence, but here filled with a wide range of characters including the British Prime Minister Lloyd George, whose desire to capture 'Jerusalem by Christmas' had consequences that reverberate to this day.

Lords of the Desert

Lords of the Desert
Author: James Barr
Publisher:
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2019-07-25
Genre:
ISBN: 9781471139802

Guardian Book of the Day New Statesman Book of the Year History Today Book of the Year Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year BBC History Magazine Book of the Year 'Bustles impressively with detail and anecdote' --Sunday Times 'Consistently fascinating' --The Spectator 'Beautifully written and deeply researched' --The Observer 'Barr draws on a rich and varied trove of sources to knit a sequence of dramatic episodes into an elegant whole. Great events march through these pages' --Wall Street Journal Upon victory in 1945, Britain still dominated the Middle East. She directly ruled Palestine and Aden, was the kingmaker in Iran, the power behind the thrones of Egypt, Iraq and Jordan, and protected the sultan of Oman and the Gulf sheikhs. But her motives for wanting to dominate this crossroads between Europe, Asia and Africa were changing. Where 'imperial security' - control of the route to India - had once been paramount, now oil was an increasingly important factor. So, too, was prestige. Ironically, the very end of empire made control of the Middle East precious in itself: on it hung Britain's claim to be a great power. Unable to withstand Arab and Jewish nationalism, within a generation the British were gone. But that is not the full story. What ultimately sped Britain on her way was the uncompromising attitude of the United States, which was determined to displace the British in the Middle East. The British did not give in gracefully to this onslaught. Using newly declassified records and long-forgotten memoirs, including the diaries of a key British spy, James Barr tears up the conventional interpretation of this era in the Middle East, vividly portraying the tensions between London and Washington, and shedding an uncompromising light on the murkier activities of a generation of American and British diehards in the region, from the battle of El Alamein in 1942 to Britain's abandonment of Aden in 1967. Reminding us that the Middle East has always served as the arena for great power conflict, this is the tale of an internecine struggle in which Britain would discover that her most formidable rival was the ally she had assumed would be her closest friend. Reviews for A Line In The Sand:- 'Masterful' --The Spectator 'With superb research and telling quotations, Barr has skewered the whole shabby story' --The Times 'Lively and entertaining. He has scoured the diplomatic archives of the two powers and has come up with a rich haul that brings his narrative to life' --Financial Times

Lawrence of Arabia's War

Lawrence of Arabia's War
Author: Neil Faulkner
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 573
Release: 2016-01-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0300196830

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.

27 Articles

27 Articles
Author: T. E. Lawrence
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 64
Release: 2017-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 1501182005

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.

Red Heat

Red Heat
Author: Alex von Tunzelmann
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 673
Release: 2012-09-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 1471114775

America's secret war in the Caribbean during the Cold War is revealed as never before in this riveting story of the machinations and blunders of superpowers, and the daring of the mavericks who took them on. During the presidencies of Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson, the Caribbean was in crisis, while the United States and the USSR acted out the world's rising tensions in its island nations. Meanwhile the leaders of these nations - the charismatic Fidel Castro, and his mysterious brother Raúl; the ideologue Che Guevara; the capricious psychopath Rafael Trujillo; and François 'Papa Doc' Duvalier, a buttoned-down doctor with interests in Vodou, embezzlement and torture - had ambitions of their own. Alex von Tunzelmann's brilliant narrative follows these five rivals and accomplices from the beginning of the Cold War to its end. The superpowers thought they could use these Caribbean leaders as puppets, but what neither bargained on was that their puppets would come to life. The United States, in its all-consuming fight against communism, stumbled into one disaster after another. First, with the Bay of Pigs, and then with the Cuban Missile Crisis, it helped bring the world as close to catastrophic nuclear war as it has ever been. Red Heatis an authoritative and eye-opening account of a wildly dramatic and dangerous era of international politics that has unmistakable resonance today.

True to Their Salt

True to Their Salt
Author: Robert Johnson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 550
Release: 2018-05-14
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0190694580

In the last decade an Iraqi Army and an Afghan National Army were created entirely from scratch, the founding of which was deemed to be a crucial measure for the establishment of security and the withdrawal of Western forces from Iraq and Afghanistan. Raising new armies is always problematic, especially during an insurgency, but doing so outside the sovereignty of one's own state raises questions of legality, concerns about their conduct and the risk of an over-empowered local military. The recruitment of proxies, including former insurgents, or the arming of local fighters and auxiliaries, levies and militias, may also exacerbate an internal security situation. In seeking answers to this conundrum Robert Johnson turns to history. His book sets out how recruitment of local auxiliaries was an essential component of European colonialism, and how, in the transfer of power and security at the end of that colonial era, the raising of local forces using existing Western models became the norm. He then offers a comprehensive survey of the post-colonial legacy, particularly the recent utilization of surrogates and auxiliaries, the work of embedded training teams, and mentoring.

Lawrence of Arabia's War

Lawrence of Arabia's War
Author: Neil Faulkner
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 557
Release: 2016-05-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 0300219458

This radically new perspective on T. E. Lawrence, the Arab Revolt, and WWI in the Middle East provides essential insight into today’s violent conflicts. Archaeologist and historian Neil Faulkner draws on ten years of field research in the Middle East to offer the first truly multidisciplinary history of the conflicts that raged in Sinai, Arabia, Palestine, and Syria during the First World War. 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. In Lawrence of Arabia’s War, Faulkner sheds new light on British intelligence officer T. E. Lawrence and his legendary military campaigns. He explores the intersections among the declining Ottoman Empire, the Bedouin tribes, rising Arab nationalism, and Western imperial ambition. Faulkner arrives at a provocative new analysis of Ottoman resilience in the face of modern industrialized warfare. This analysis leads him to reassesses the relative weight of conventional operations in Palestine and irregular warfare in Syria—and thus the historic roots of today’s divided, fractious, war-torn Middle East.