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

by James Barr

Overview

Greed and intrigue combine explosively in this gripping tale of how the mercurial Lawrence of Arabia changed the Middle East forever.

It was T. E. Lawrence’s classic Seven Pillars of Wisdom that made the Arab Revolt a legend and helped turn the British intelligence officer into the mythical “Lawrence of Arabia.” But the intrigue behind the revolt and its startling consequences for the present-day Middle East have remained a mystery for nearly one hundred years. James Barr spent four years trawling declassified archives in Europe and crossing the hostile deserts of the Middle East to re-create the revolt as the international drama it really was. A colorful cast of Arab sheiks, British and French soldiers, spies, and diplomats come together in this gripping narrative of political maneuvering, guerrilla warfare, and imperial greed. Setting the Desert on Fire is a masterly account of a key moment in the history of the Middle East, and a portrait of Lawrence himself that is bright, nuanced, and full of fresh insights into the true nature of the master mythmaker.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393070958
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	02/17/2008
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	400
File size:	935 KB

About the Author

James Barr is the author of Setting the Desert on Fire. During the research for A Line in the Sand he was a Visiting Fellow at St Antony’s College, Oxford. He lives in London.

Table of Contents

Key Figures in This Book     vii
Maps     xi
A Note on the Text     xv
Prologue     1
A Clear-Thinking Hatchet Man     9
Will This Do?     21
The Uprising Starts and Stutters     34
The Blame Game Begins     43
The French Arrive     55
This Was the Man     62
Crisis over Rabigh     74
Turning Point     86
Wajh     97
The First Railway Raids     107
Differences over Tactics     124
Fighting for Us on a Lie     135
Stalemate in the Hijaz     146
Triumph at Aqaba     153
The Impact of Aqaba     160
Impolitic Truths     168
Difficult Times     180
Gaza and Yarmuk: Victory and Failure     189
Dara or Azrak: Where Was Lawrence? (15-21 November 1917)     201
The Balfour Declaration and Its Aftermath     207
Fighting De Luxe     219
New Conditions     229
A Complete Muck-Up     241
Preparing for the Push     252
Holding Operations     262
The Dara Raid     273
TheRoad to Damascus     287
A House with No Door     298
Epilogue     314
Notes     324
Bibliography     355
Acknowledgments     363
Permissions     365
Photograph Credits     367
Index     369

Editorial Reviews

British historian Barr re-examines World War I's " 'Great Arab Revolt' " led by the legendary "Lawrence of Arabia" in this exhaustively researched and vividly narrated history. Thomas Edward Lawrence was a young British intelligence officer when he undertook to organize Arab resistance to the Ottoman Empire, a German ally. The Turkish (Ottoman) sultan was also the caliph-spiritual leader of Muslims worldwide-and the British feared that his call for jihad "threatened their eastern empire." To secure Arab support against the Turks, the British offered them "a hazy declaration" of future independence. Led by Lawrence, "an eccentric amateur" who adopted the flowing robes of his desert allies, the Arabs began a guerrilla campaign against the Hijaz Railway, "the Turks' supply line" between Damascus and Medina. Lawrence's "driving obsession" was to capture Damascus and "foil French ambitions in Syria." As the war in Europe was ending, the Arabs occupied Damascus and Lawrence installed an Arab government. Upon the war's conclusion, "Middle Eastern matters were peripheral." Britain then yielded Syria to France, denying Arab independence and initiating "a new legacy, of increasingly bitter relations." Barr expertly navigates an intriguing landscape of shifting alliances and labyrinthine politics peopled with eccentric characters to demystify a fascinating legend. illus. (Feb.)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

Publishers Weekly

The Arabs: fiercely nationalistic and politically fragmented. The imperialists: militarily stretched and engaged in contradictory diplomacy. Oil: complicating the political interests. While this could be a description of current conditions in the Middle East, here it reflects the fluid scene when World War I brought European rivalries to the Arab sector of the crumbling Ottoman Empire. Barr conducted extensive research in government and personal papers of the era and visited the relevant sites to convey the complex story and the harsh environment of his topic. The result is this lively, well-balanced story of the Arab Revolt and the shifting British response. T.E. Lawrence is only one of the colorful British officers conveying contradictory messages to the Arab leaders, partially resisting French pressures, and negotiating with Zionists. The desert battles involving British, Indian, French, Turkish, German, and Arab forces were chaotic, and the diplomacy was shortsighted and unreliable. Barr's book doesn't offer anything particularly new, but it provides a clear, engaging history of a crucial period in the still-vital Middle East. Libraries seeking material for the serious general reader will want to get this.
—Elizabeth R. Hayford

Library Journal

"A tightly-focused, fast-paced account…Mr. Barr’s achievement is to tell Lawrence’s story more clearly and objectively, helping to make sense of a complex war fought in an unfamiliar land and language."

New York Sun - Adam Kirsch

"[James] Barr has written a compact, scrupulously accurate chronicle of the revolt and Lawrence’s role in it, utilizing previously unavailable archival material…An excellent general history of a widely misunderstood struggle that largely defined the shape of the modern Middle East."

Booklist

[James] Barr has written a compact, scrupulously accurate chronicle of the revolt and Lawrence's role in it, utilizing previously unavailable archival material...An excellent general history of a widely misunderstood struggle that largely defined the shape of the modern Middle East.-- "Booklist"

A tightly-focused, fast-paced account...Mr. Barr's achievement is to tell Lawrence's story more clearly and objectively, helping to make sense of a complex war fought in an unfamiliar land and language.--Adam Kirsch "New York Sun"

Barr expertly navigates an intriguing landscape of shifting alliances and labyrinthine politics peopled with eccentric characters to demystify a fascinating legend.-- "Publishers Weekly"

From the Publisher