With Lawrence in Arabia [Hardcover]

Lowell Thomas (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1994

Publisher: London Hutchinson Subjects: Lawrence, T. E. (Thomas Edward), 1888-1935 World War, 1914-1918 -- Arabian Peninsula Notes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be numerous typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Admirable… enthralling.” -- The New York Times --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Publisher

It was 1918, in Jerusalem, when the admiring young American scholar and journalist Lowell Thomas first met T.E. Lawrence. He went on to write With Lawrence in Arabia, a book that sparked the Lawrence of Arabia legend and was the basis of the celebrated film. With brilliant narrative verve, Lowell recounts the exploits of the young British agent who managed to weld disparate and warring Arab tribes into a formidable mobile fighting force—a guerilla army that would defeat the Turks in the Arab Revolt, sealing the fate of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East during World War I. On a canvas whose background is the fierce, inhospitable desert and in whose foreground stride the Emir Feisal, King Hussein I of the Hedjaz, the British General Allenby, and the strange, hypnotic figure of Lawrence himself, Thomas paints a vivid portrait of the “modern knight of Arabia.” --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Amereon Ltd (December 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0848812050
• ISBN-13: 978-0848812058
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,097,437 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Debunking the debunkers, March 1, 2004

By 

antistat "kensboy" (Culver City, Ca United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: With Lawrence in Arabia (Prion Lost Treasures) (Paperback)

Thomas' book is worth reading because it's a nice antidote to the Lawrence revisionism that reached it's hysterical peak in the late eighties with David Fromkin. A Peace to End All Peace, which has been quoted on this website as some kind of definitve debunking of Lawrence, is now sixteen years old, an eternity in the world of Lawrence ebb and flow. I know of five biographies of Lawrence published since then including Jeremy Wilson's definitive work. The pendulum has been swinging back the other way for over a decade and the mainstream thought now among military historians is that inspite of one or two exaggerations, Lawrence's masterpiece, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, is an accurate account of one of the most remarkable military adventures of modern times. Lowell Thomas, who was an eye witness to some of Lawrence's exploits, also captures the essence of why Lawrence was important. If you had to read only one, of course you should read Seven Pillars. In the March 1, 2004 London Times there are actually two different articles addressing the vital relevance of Seven Pillars of Wisdom for those fighting Arab guerrillas in Iraq today. It seems the sales of this great work has exploded. In the Oxford Companion to Military History published in 2002, Lawrence is given credit for virtually inventing effective modern guerrilla warfare (see the entry "guerrilla warfare"). According to this distinguished reference book, every formidable guerrilla fighter from Mao, to Che, to the Israeli guerrillas of the forties, to the Arabs, to the Viet Namese etc., have used Lawrence's writings and experiences as a model for their efforts. Lawrence is back and very relevant, so Thomas' account should be read as an enthusiatic if flawed version of an extremely important development in military and middle eastern history. A word about Fromkin and some of the other out dated debunkers. Lawrence stepped on a lot of Arab, Zionist and British Establisment toes. It's as important to examine the motives of a revisionist as it is to scrutinize the intergrity of an enthusiast.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Making of a Legend By a Shameless Showman, February 13, 2004

By 

G M. Stathis (cedar city, utah USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: With Lawrence in Arabia (Prion Lost Treasures) (Paperback)

David Lean included a journalist, Jackson Bentley, in his epic film "Lawrence of Arabia," an obvious take-off on the great journalist and author Lowell Thomas. In fact, Thomas was with Lawrence in Arabia and used the experience to make a name for himself and to create a legend. Sadly, it is also true, that T.E. Lawrence did not want to be a legend. As a biography of Lawrence or an introduction to the Middle East this volume has suffered a bit over the years..."it's all right," but there are better books on each subject. Still, this is something special, at least for this writer. This was the first book on the Middle East that I read and when combined with Lean's film which I saw about the same time in early 1963 I was hooked. I have studied, taught about and written about the Middle East ever since. Lowell Thomas and David Lean were inspirations for this modest scholar. I had the privilege to spend part of an early evening with Lowell Thomas in 1973, in of all places a press box awaiting a football game at the University of Utah. It was an unexpected and rare treat. Thomas seemed quite moved that he had encouraged the work of a graduate student. He was was quite a man. His greatest talent was to tell stories, and that he did, with some dramatic embellishments. This work on Lawrence is not unfactual, indeed it provides a good deal of fact. It is also quite sympathetic to Islam and the Arabs, as it should be. Lawrence seems larger than life. But in truth there are men like that. Both Lawrence and Thomas were such men and that can be seen in this wonderful book. It reads well, and it educates, even if some of it is the stuff of legend.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Biography, Great Geography, January 10, 2002

By 

William Hare (Seattle, Washington) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: With Lawrence in Arabia (Hardcover)

Lowell Thomas launched a first step toward a great career as an author, journalist, and eventually radio commentator with this book revealing the exploits of T.E. Lawrence in Arabia. In David Lean's great film "Lawrence of Arabia" a facsimile of Thomas was presented with the journalist played by Arthur Kennedy who came from New York to cover the great desert warrior's exploits.

In addition to providing readers with a firsthand look at the enigmatic, always colorful Lawrence, Thomas also gives us a good look at the geographical milieu of an ancient and fascinating land. He also provides excellent information on tribal leaders, complete with illuminating thumbnail sketches, such as his portrait of the fabled legend in his own time, Auda, who, when told that his false teeth had come from the country he hated, Turkey, smashed them with a rock and was compelled to take his meals through a straw for two weeks.

After having learned a great deal about Lawrence elsewhere, what I found truly unique about Thomas' biographical study was his analysis of the desert warrior's brilliant strategy of bringing disparate tribes together for a common goal. He stressed to tribal leaders, making proper pragmatically individualized approaches, how important it was to overcome Turkey's Ottoman Empire in Arabia. Lawrence emphasized that disunity had been their major stumbling block in failing to meet their objectives as Arabs. Lawrence's diplomatic skills resulted in at least a temporary unity, with even the headstrong inidivdualist, Auda, joining the cohesive effort to overthrow the Ottoman regime.