Lawrence of Arabia Family Review

The story of T.E. Lawrence, the English officer who successfully united and led the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes during World War I in order to fight the Turks.Due to his knowledge of the native Bedouin tribes, British Lieutenant T.E. Lawrence is sent to Arabia to find Prince Faisal and serve as a liaison between the Arabs and the British in their fight against the Turks. With the aid of native Sherif Ali, Lawrence rebels against the orders of his superior officer and strikes out on a daring camel journey across the harsh desert to attack a well-guarded Turkish port.—Jwelch5742A semi-fictional account of the exploits of British military officer T.E. Lawrence during WWI is presented, plus a prologue at his 1935 funeral where his contemporaries remark or don't remark at how they consider him and his military contributions especially to the Great War. Viewed somewhat as an insolent man, he, a lieutenant in intelligence at a desk job in the Cairo bureau, is assigned to go on a reconnaissance mission to the Arabian peninsula to assess Prince Faisal's efforts against the Turks. He is assigned this job in what is considered its low importance in the British still focusing their own efforts directly on the German offensive, and because of his academic knowledge of Arabia. Against the narrow confines of his original orders and advice of ranking officers in the field, Lawrence, befriending many he meets, not only the Prince but most specifically Sherif Ali, bands with the Arabs in being able to coalesce the many disparate tribes which comprise the fighting Bedouins. Things begin to change for Lawrence when the British military as a whole gets more involved in the goings-on in Arabia - they working on the presumed goals of the politicians - and Lawrence himself changes his own outlook as a human being in being caught directly in battle.—HuggoAn inordinately complex man who has been labelled everything from hero, to charlatan, to sadist, T.E. Lawrence blazed his way to glory in the Arabian desert, then sought anonymity as a common soldier under an assumed name. The story opens with the death of Lawrence in a motorcycle accident in Dorset at the age of forty-six, then flashbacks to recount his adventures: as a young intelligence officer in Cairo in 1916, he is given leave to investigate the progress of the Arab revolt against the Turks in World War I. In the desert, he organizes a guerrilla army and, for two years, leads the Arabs in harassing the Turks with desert raids, train-wrecking, and camel attacks. Eventually, he leads his army northward and helps a British General destroy the power of the Ottoman Empire.—alfiehitchie