Scott Anderson -- Lawrence in arabia
======================================

Anderson had written a very dense history of one period, World War I
and the time immediately before and after it, and about one specific
region, specifically Egypt, western Arabia, Palestine, and Syria.

Of course this is also a fascinating account of T.E. Lawrence and of
his thoughts and writings, feeling and passions, strengths and
weaknesses, and accomplishments and failures.  But, there are other
fascinating characters whose stories and activities cross with and
influence Lawrence's own, and whom Anderson follows throughout the
book.

My own interest in this book revolves around the question: How did
the Middle East become what it is today?  Certainly, that question
cannot be answered in full by an account, even as detailed a one as
that given in "Lawrence in Arabia", by an explanation of the period
surrounding WW I.  That would be a bit like saying that we or I
could explain *me* completely by presenting my genome alone, without
also describing my family, my education, my work experiences, and
more.  So, also, it would be a mistake to say that Lawrence and the
people around him completely determined the trajectory of the Middle
East while absolving all the actors who came after that period from
credit or blame.  And still, if we are to understand a little of why
the Middle East is the way it is today and understand enough to
think intelligently about policy decisions that effect the Middle
East, then this is an important place to start.

Anderson tells this history through accounts of four principle
characters, each, in his way, influential in that history and events
that shaped the region: (1) T.E. Lawrence, of course, who started
out with a quiet existence in England, but later was transformed by
his passion for military history, archaeology, and the people and
culture of the Arabian peninsula; (2) William Yale, who started life
as a child in a rich family, but who found his footing, after his
famil's fortune was lost, with Standard Oil Company of New York
(SOCONY), working in and exploring the Middle East, and later as an
advisor and agent in the U.S. government; (3) Curt Prüfer, a highly
capable spy and agent for the German government, a government that
under Kaiser Wilhelm II, had aspirations for world power.  And, (4)
Aaron Aaronsohn, already famous for discovering the ancient ancestor
of modern day wheat, whose dream was to develop the knowledge and
technology needed to make the region around Palestine into a rich
agricultural area and the site of the new home for the Jewish
people, and who become a spy for the British as part of his plan to
do so.

And, what makes the stories about these characters and others and
about the events around them so fascinating, is that often
(usually?) things are not what they seem to be nor what these and
other characters claim them to be.  This is *not* a book about
characters who are members of a standard, organized, business-like
war effort; they are characters in between: between different
fighting forces, between different nations, between different
tribes, between different departments in the same army even.  It's
that confusion that makes "Lawrence in Arabia" and characters in it
such a fascinating book.

This is also a history full of details about about military
campaigns, preparations for campaigns and battles, the battles
themselves, and the coordination and conflicts between the
significant people (possibly) controlling those movements and
battles, notably Lawrence, of course, but also his British military
superiors and his Arab rebel allies.  His main mission, from the
point of view of (some at least) of his British military leads was
to coordinate the Arab rebels' actions against the Turks and align
those actions with those of the British.  But Lawrence, recognizing
that British promises to the Arabs were likely to be broken after
the war, became increasingly an independent actor both as a liaison
and military commander.

It will be a help in understanding this book to have some
appreciation of the mind-set of each of the principle characters and
how that developed: (1) Lawrence was formed by schools in Britain,
by an extremely punishing (even brutal) mother, by a love of history
and archaeology, and by an appreciation of the Arabs in Syria and
Arabia.  (2) William Yale developed from a desire to not fall into
the usual employment and life-style of his family's class, by work
that amounted to hardship tours in faraway places, and from a
willingness to seek and follow adventure.  (3) Aaron Aaronsohn came
to be who he was from success in agricultural research and a desire
to help the (Jewish) inhabitants of the Palestine region successful
in farming, but even more important from his desire that the Jewish
people in the region should have a home where they could be safe.
He was a man who was arrogant, passionate, and combative; and he
believed fervently in the cause of Zionism.  (4) And, Curt Prüfer
became what he was from an intense desire for success and access to
luxury, enabled in part by a sharp intelligence especially with
respect to learning foreign languages.

Anderson emphasises how keen each of these four were to gather
information for use by their sponsors about the region and it's
actors; he also describes how skilled and adept they each were at
doing so.

The part played by Lawrence in all this was an especially important
one.  He was the one who best understood the Arab rebels, who in
some cases had their trust, and who could converse with them in
their own language aided by an awareness of their culture and
institutions.  The British attempted to use Lawrence to encourage
the Arab rebels to fight against the Turks and to help in
coordinating their fighting with that of the British military, which
seemed to need all the help it could get during several failed
campaigns in and around Palestine.

Of course there is a good deal about the incredible feats of
Lawrence himself: journeys on camel and even on foot across Syria,
battles that he led, Arab campaigns and maneuvers that he led.
These became part of the history and the myth about Lawrence.
Anderson does a pretty reasonable job of helping us to understand
which of these stories we can and cannot rely on and believe.

An important story told by Anderson is that of the promises made by
the British in bad faith while they also made promises, for example,
to the French.  This is not a simple story; it has multiple actors
with different, often conflicting, agendas.  Anderson does a good
job of laying out the details of this betrayal.

And yet, we can understand only so much by studying the characters.
There are also the events and conditions that shaped their times.
Perhaps the most important of these was the new demand for oil and
petroleum.  In the years immediately before WW I, the number of
internal combustion engines and other users of petroleum was
increasing at an extremely rapid rate.  That's why Yale was sent to
the Middle East and a big reason why the British were there.  It was
why control of the Middle East and the petroleum resources in it
drove the efforts of the major powers and would increasingly do so
after WW I.

The latter parts of the book become increasingly grim and horrific
as WW I drags on and 100s of thousands of soldiers are wounded and
die on European battlefields, as the Arabs fight against the
military from the Ottoman Empire, in part led by Lawrence himself,
and the British forces too attach to drive the Ottoman Turks out of
Syria and Palestine.  Anderson, who has worked as a war
correspondent, knows how to present the brutal reality of warfare;
it's an ugly picture.

Following these four principle characters throughout Anderson's book
makes this a fascinating read.  There is an "Epilogue" chapter, that
gives brief accounts of the lives of these characters after WW I,
but I will not be a spoiler by summarizing that.  This book is well
worth the time you'd invest in it to find out about these very
special and interesting and bigger-than-life people.

10/10/2016

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