Lawrence In Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly And The Making Of The Modern Middle East

"After covering daily news from Syria for more than two years, there are times I read history as a guide to the outcome: In the Middle East, it’s bad, and Scott Anderson’s book tells us why. It’s a group biography that weaves the stories of legendary British officer T.E. Lawrence, who played a key role in the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Turks during World War I; German Curt Prufer, who conspired with the Ottomans; Zionist agronomist Aaron Aaronsohn, who made the desert bloom; and American oil company representative William Yale, who spied for the State Department. Yale is the least accomplished character, but the hapless American gives Anderson the grist to deliver his verdict on U.S. policy then and now. Analyzing a muddled dispatch Yale sent to Washington, Anderson writes: “He was establishing a tradition of fundamentally misreading the situation in the Middle East that his successors in the American intelligence community would rigorously maintain for the next 95 years.” This is a book about muddling and meddling. It couldn’t come at a better time."