How do you write a new book about T.E. Lawrence, especially when the man himself described his escapades, or a version of them, with such inimitable genius? Scott Anderson’s answer is to intercut Lawrence’s extraordinary story — the camel raids and blown-up bridges, the rape and torture, the lies and shame — with those of three contemporaries, all supposedly engaged in a grand intelligence duel in Syria and Arabia.
Alongside Lawrence, the principals are the German playboy and scholar-spy Curt Prüfer, who tried to ignite his own pan-Islamic uprising on behalf of the Ottoman empire; the ‘Yankee blueblood’ William Yale, who intrigued in the region on behalf, principally, of Standard Oil of New York; and the Zionist agronomist and spymaster — a splendidly unlikely combination — Aaron Aaronsohn, who helped prick Britain into backing the idea of a Jewish homeland.
Aaronsohn is the most interesting of the supporting trio. A bloated bull of a man, he matched Lawrence for arrogance, but with the physical size and belligerence to go with it; Lawrence, of course, was short and shy.
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