Best lawrence of arabia biography

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But the historian in him remained critical of it and the ascetic in him was likely disgusted by it. Lawrence studied at Oxford University and in 1909 visited Syria and Palestine. T.E. Lawrence was perhaps too complicated, too intelligent, too literary, too guilt-ridden, too troubled to wear the mantle of hero with anything but great discomfort.

He persuaded the Arabs not to drive the Ottomans out of Medina, thus forcing the Turks to tie up troops in the city garrison.

When war broke out, Lawrence became an intelligence officer in Cairo. Success continued as they gradually made their way north. (ISBN 0195068181)

Quotes

I loved you, so I drew these tides of men into my hands and wrote my will across the sky in stars To earn you Freedom -- from the dedication of Seven Pillars of Wisdom

I deem him one of the greatest beings alive in our time...

Lawrence was disillusioned by his failure to bring the Arabs self-rule, but was by now a celebrity, helped by the publicity efforts of American journalist Lowell Thomas.

In 1921, Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill appointed Lawrence as an adviser, but in 1922 he resigned and joined the Royal Air Force in an attempt to find anonymity. During the closing years of the war he sought to convince his superiors in the British government that Arab independence was in their interests, to mixed success.

Postwar years

After the war, he attempted to achieve anonymity, joining the Royal Air Force in 1922 under the name "Ross".

At times he helped further his fame. One questions whether Wilson is too credulous of Lawrence's own writings, considered the man's self-admitted "leg-pulling," though generally he makes a fair effort defending his interpretation of events. It will live in the legends of Arabia. He especially became known for wearing white Arabian garb (given to him by Prince Feisal, originally wedding robes given to Feisal as a hint) and riding on a horse in the desert.

While he initially struggled to process his guilt and trauma, not to mention his ongoing celebrity (fanned by American reporter Lowell Thomas, whose lecture series promoted Lawrence as the "Uncrowned King of Arabia"), by the late '20s Lawrence settled into a more or less comfortable existence. Wilson largely pushes back against the portrait that had emerged of Lawrence since the 1950s as a neurotic, megalomaniac, possibly psychotic individual, depicting him as struggling with relatable human demons (depression, trauma, shame over his illegitimacy, a lack of firmly rooted identity) and understandable feelings of betrayal and mistrust from his wartime role with the Arab Revolt.

Before the conference had even begun, the British and French had agreed on the future of Turkey's Arab territories. His small but effective irregular forces attacked Turkish communications and supply routes, tying down thousands of Turkish troops and preventing them from fighting against regular allied forces under the command of General Edward Allenby.

From March to May, Lawrence worked again at Carchemish. And they may have ruined the life of the man who lived through the events, was the subject of those perspectives and existed somewhere behind that myth.