Golden Warrior: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia

by Lawrence James

During the 1920s in the aftermath of the Arab revolt against Britain T. E. Lawrence gained global attention, both for his involvement in the Middle Eastern anti-imperialist movement, and for his vivid and sensational writings about his experiences. Following World War I, his appointment as an advisor to Winston Churchill nearly simultaneous with the release of an American documentary about the revolt further charged the T. E. Lawrence mania.Despite the emergence of a whole new set of problems in the Middle East, and fueled by the classic status of the epic movie Lawrence of Arabia, the T. E. Lawrence mystique continues to fascinate. Controversial and provocative, this revised and updated edition of Lawrence James s acclaimed biography penetrates and overturns the mythology that surrounds T. E. Lawrence.

With access to previously unavailable documents, James traces the sometimes spurious Lawrence legend back to its truthful roots, peeling back the layers of Lawrence s calculated public persona to reveal the gifted, tortured man behind the shimmering myth. Yet James remains dispassionate and generous in spirit throughout. The Golden Warrior presents readers with a fascinating study of one of the twentieth century s most remarkable figures.

Genres: Biography, History, Nonfiction, Middle East, Politics, Historical, 20th Century

560 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1994

About the author

Edwin James Lawrence, most commonly known as Lawrence James, is an English historian and writer.

James graduated with a BA in English & History from the University of York in 1966, and subsequently undertook a research degree at Merton College, Oxford. Following a career as a teacher, James became a full-time writer in 1985.

James has written several works of popular history about the British Empire, and has contributed pieces for Daily Mail, The Times and the Literary Review.

Reviews

[Jerome Otte · Rating 4 out of 5]

An academic revisionist biography of Lawrence. Although there isn’t much in the way of new research or new insights James’ portrait is intriguing and nuanced.

James examines many aspects of the Lawrence legend, disputing some as unlikely to have occurred (such as Lawrence’s pre-war espionage and conspiracy theories about his death) James also looks at how Lawrence’s legend developed, examining Britain’s psychological need for a hero after the mind-numbing and depressing experience of the Great War and how Lawrence met their needs for both romanticism and a hero with an ordinary background. This part of the book tends to be the most interesting. James also argues that Lawrence’s alleged sexual assault at Deraa was made up (although it seems that James’ source for this assertion is a single diary) James also argues that Lawrence’s views on Middle Eastern issues evolved over time, especially during his stint at the Arab Bureau.

James also argues that the Arab Revolt achieved little of military significance and basically amounted to a PR coup (a rather questionable claim) While James evaluates Lawrence’s memoirs critically, he also asserts that Lawrence used the Turkish massacre at Tafas to justify later atrocities by the Arabs, which seems a bit far-fetched given Lawrence’s own description of the event and his personal distaste for killing (something Lawrence was not silent about) The narrative also jumps back and forth a bit and James assumes a good deal of foreknowledge about Lawrence from the reader.

Still, a good biography of Lawrence.

[Christopher Saunders · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Golden Warrior: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia attempts a straight academic biography. Veteran military historian Lawrence James provides relatively little original research or fresh insight, and his analysis occasionally grates. Nonetheless, he deserves credit for an intriguingly complex portrait of Lawrence.

Despite his cynicism towards the "Lawrence legend," James scrupulously rebukes many outlandish critical claims. Addressing Knightley and Simpson's accusation of pre-war espionage, James argues Lawrence the archaeologist "would have found out nothing... not already well-known to the British government" (45). He also dismisses conspiracy theorizing about Lawrence's death as "thriller fantasy" (495). Between this and his healthy skepticism towards Lawrence's own writings, James establishes himself as a credible biographer.

The most interesting sections involve the development of the Lawrence legend. James has a deep background in British history, and he does a great job placing Lawrence's fame in context. In the grim aftermath of World War I, James shows how much the English-speaking world needed a hero like Lawrence, who mixed traditional romanticism with modern "common man" appeal. He also excellently captures Lawrence's complicity in starting the legend, and mixed feelings of its perpetuation. James ends the book with an overview of Lawrence's portrayal in biography and popular media, growing and mutating to meet cultural needs and the whims of his biographers.

Like other authors, James views Lawrence through his perceived fantasies. Chafing at a strict but not unhappy childhood, the young Lawrence tested his physical limits, traveled abroad and plunged himself into foreign cultures. Enraptured by Morte d'Arthur and The Odyssey, Lawrence viewed his life as a saga, casting himself as its oversized hero. This medievalism also informs Lawrence's love of the simple Bedouin and aversion towards the educated "town Arabs." John Mack and Desmond Stewart advanced ideas of this argument on a personal level, but James explores it in the broader context of Edwardian England.

When James gets to the war years, his analysis grows mixed. He convincingly argues that Lawrence's views on the Middle East - especially his skepticism towards France and hatred of Turkey - evolved in concert with his Arab Bureau colleagues, belying the idea that Lawrence was a committed imperialist from the start. He disparages the Arab Revolt, conceding its propaganda value but trotting out the old canard of gold-hungry tribesmen. He argues the Arabs achieved little militarily, a questionable assessment in light of recent books like James Barr's Setting the Desert on Fire. Despite these critiques, James gladly acknowledges Lawrence's skill and courage in the desert.

James adds little new or insightful in dealing with Lawrence's strange post-war career. He dutifully recounts Lawrence's work in the Colonial Office, his attempts to serve as a "gentleman ranker," his bizarre relationship with John Bruce and brushing shoulders with the likes of Bernard Shaw and Robert Graves while dining with gruff RAF flyers. Lawrence's post-war career is fascinating, but James doesn't bring much to the table here.

James casts a skeptical eye on Seven Pillars of Wisdom, pointedly highlighting Lawrence's exaggerations. Interestingly, James notes Lawrence's embellishment extended to his official reports, rendering many contemporary documents suspect. However, James' textual analysis is also spotty. He views Lawrence's descriptions of the Deraa incident and Turkish atrocities at Tafas as justification for later Arab massacres of the Turks. The bloodcurdling depiction of Tafas, and Lawrence's loudly-stated revulsion to bloodshed, seem to bely James's argument. James is wedded to the idea of Seven Pillars as a carefully-structured novel, interesting in specific cases but overstated in general.

James devotes a long chapter to Lawrence's capture and rape at Deraa (pp. 245-263). He raises the usual objections, from Lawrence's inconsistency in accounts to some eyewitness testimony to Hajim Bey's heterosexuality. His bombshell is a diary entry from a colleague at Aqaba, which supposedly proves Lawrence could not have been in Deraa at the time of incident. Jeremy Wilson, however, has shown this diary conflicts with other contemporary documents. James moves on from factual matters to speculation that Deraa serves as a "coded" admission of Lawrence's sexual preference.

James goes beyond the usual arguments by claiming that Lawrence was a practicing homosexual. He makes the most of Seven Pillars' description of Bedouin man-love, and John Bruce's tale of flogging is hard to discount. Beyond these old chestnuts, James is grasping at straws. He repeats Desmond Stewart's spurious "Bluebeard" story, liberally quotes the dubious Richard Meinertzhagen ("boy or girl?") and even suggests Lawrence was about to be arrested for indecency prior to his death. The fact that such rumors existed is suggestive, but does not constitute evidence.

The Golden Warrior remains a worthy biography all the same. If James criticizes Lawrence's vanity and self-aggrandizement, he also praises his genius, heroism, tactical skill and charisma. "Why Lawrence felt impelled to embellish his achievement and then repudiate the fame they offered him remains inexplicable," James notes (433), nicely summing up one of history's most enigmatic figures.

[Stephan Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I will mostly take away from this biography is that T. E. Lawrence was already during his own lifetime an enigmatic person -- probably posing deep riddles to even himself, as he seems to have swerved between various extremes of mood, attitude and behaviour all the time, fabricating himself a lot of the media hype surrounding "Lawrence of Arabia" by often embellishing his own deeds. Lawrence James succeeds in crystalling out that type of behaviour with giving numerous examples, where he had to go and take the evidence from witnesses other than Lawrence's personal accounts of the history.

At times a bit tedious, and fairly short on the everything that followed the period after 1922, still an enjoyable piece of work. The only big problem that I had was a dire lack of at least one good map !

Also, the description of the historic background, while extremely important for the development of the problems that Lawrence soon faced in helping the Arabs trying to gain indepedence, remained a tad uncoordinated, with several jumps for- and backwards that kept confusing me for a while. The solution for me, however, was to use some external sources, which I could reference while reading the book.

[Bee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aside from a long, long narrative about skirmishes and battles in the Middle East, I liked this book. (Disclaimer: Warlike things aren't bad, just very uninteresting to me in particular. I discovered that my perspective on battles was not shared by everyone in the early nineties :) while reading the Tolkien trilogy to my two school-age boys. One evening when I came upon the paragraphs detailing yet another battle, I suggested skipping that part and was met with loud protests. "That's the best part.")

Anyway, I knew nothing of T.E. Lawrence and this book gave me not only a multi-sided view of the man and his times, but an informative mini-history of The Middle East, which is daily in the news, yet remains a total mystery to me. I was especially appreciative of the non-judgmental tone of the whole book. Yes, Lawrence embellished his stories. Yes, he was quirky and, at times, contrary. But James neither sugar-coated nor disdained his subject. Very well done.

[Steven Nasopoulos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Close friends and family called him Ned. “Ned of Arabia” could be the caption to a very strong Far Side cartoon.

[David Bonesteel · Rating 4 out of 5]

According to Lawrence James's account, the Lawrence of Arabia most of us know is largely a myth concocted in accordance with TE Lawrence's huge ego and his overwhelming desire to present the Arabs, for whom he desperately wanted to secure the right of self-rule, in the best light. James concludes that much of what we think we know about Lawrence, including his infamous rape by the Turks, are lies. This is a very interesting book about a controversial figure.

[David B · Rating 4 out of 5]

According to Lawrence James's account, the Lawrence of Arabia most of us know is largely a myth concocted in accordance with TE Lawrence's huge ego and his overwhelming desire to present the Arabs, for whom he desperately wanted to secure the right of self-rule, in the best light. James concludes that much of what we think we know about Lawrence, including his infamous rape by the Turks, are lies. This is a very interesting book about a controversial figure.

[Avril · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting history book in part because it is itself a historical artefact. Written in 1990, I found it in my local library and borrowed it simply because I know very little about ‘Lawrence of Arabia’. Would the same history be written today, 34 years later? It is as much history as biography - Lawrence’s war years get 192 pages, while his background and life before the war get only about 70, and his life after the war only about 60. The focus is very much on the ‘of Arabia’ part of his life.

James seems unimpressed by Arabs, especially as fighters during the war, arguing that they mostly fought as mercenaries for British gold, and could have done nothing without the Allied Forces. He condemns Lawrence’s attempts to help them achieve independence, arguing that as a British soldier any attempt by Lawrence to subvert that now notorious Sykes-Picot agreement by which the British and French Empires divided the Middle East up between them was “wildly irresponsible”: “This was tantamount to a private policy concocted by Lawrence to deprive his country's ally, France, of post-war territorial and political rewards that had been formally promised by the British government.” The suggestion that Lawrence was absolutely morally right, and that the British and French had no right to carve up countries between than cuts no ice with James; Lawrence needed to follow British policy. But in 2024 no one can doubt that Lawrence was on the right side of history when he wrote: “The Arabs rebelled against the Turks during the war not because the Turk government was notably bad, but because they wanted independence. They did not risk their lives in battle to change masters, to become British subjects or French citizens, but to win a show of their own”. James wants to defend the British from the charge of deceiving the Arabs with false promises of independence, and he blames any expectations of independence they might have had on Lawrence, but maybe both Arabs and Lawrence himself were expecting the British to simply do the right thing.

James is willing to acknowledge that Lawrence was completely right in his advice on Palestine: “On the thorny subject of Palestine, Lawrence indicated that the Arabs would allow Jewish immigration, but correctly prophesied that they would resist attempts to create a Zionist state … He was pessimistic and predicted further violent incidents which might culminate in all-out racial war. 'The success of Zionism' might eventually bring peace, but this would need at least fifty years. 'Popular' as opposed to mandatory government could reduce tension but, as Lawrence knew, this would mean complete Arab domination since the 150,000 Palestinians outnumbered the Jewish settlers.” And in 2024 the war between Palestinians and Jewish Zionists rages on.

James argues that Lawrence’s alternate moods of self-promotion and complete retreat come from his guilt, as the child of an evangelical mother. “The extended periods of melancholic brooding which marked Lawrence's later life owed much to his frequently admitted sense of guilt and self-loathing. His Evangelical upbringing would have taught him to set the highest value on truthfulness. By his mother's canon, lying was quite simply a sin.” But he cannot explain why Lawrence would have lied in the first place: “Yet what Lawrence did as a young explorer in the Levant or as an officer in the field commands respect and required no ornament. Why Lawrence felt impelled to embellish his achievement and then repudiate the fame they offered him remains inexplicable. This, as much as his many inner contradictions, remains the most enduring Lawrence enigma.” It is only enigmatic because James does not believe Lawrence was homosexual, and minimises his masochism. But if Lawrence was gay, as he was certainly a masochist, at a time when it was both a crime and an illness, then a need to compensate by ‘embellishing his achievements’ makes sense, as do his feelings of guilt.

So, as I said, an interesting book, but one with which I wish to argue.

[Frank Catania · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most people know Lawrence of Arabia from David Lean's Oscar-winning movie. The movie was a film biography as Lawrence himself might have told it. Or as this book's author, Lawrence James, comments, "Like the ancient ballad or epic poem, [the movie] recreates history as it ought to have been rather than as it was." In many ways, Colonel T. E. Lawrence was more complex than the movie tried to show.

This biography digs deep into Lawrence's family history to explain the development of Lawrence's character. He was a medievalist who longed for the days of knights and chivalry yet found himself fighting in the first modern war of the 20th Century. Lawrence became that rare intellectual who found the battlefield a place where ideas, ideals and action came together as they could nowhere else.

I can heartily recommend this book not only for those who want to understand the Colonel Lawrence as more than a striking movie character, and who want to learn how the Middle East campaign in WWI set the stage for the development of that critical region in today's world.

[Emg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tedious in the details of the political aspects of the Middle East management at the time, almost as if there wasn't enough material on Lawrence and the book had to be filled up somehow. The sections dealing with Lawrence, as a man who created his own image and identity, were interesting.

[Dean Krebs · Rating 3 out of 5]

My view

A tedious read. I quit on the book about fifty pages after Lawrence's death, for I wasn't concerned about who wrote what or why.

[Asuman]

(2000) printed ed by Abacus

[David Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Provocative and very informative if a bit stodgy in places