pbOne of the Best Books of the Year briThe Christian Science MonitorbrNPRbrThe Seattle Times brSt. Louis Post-Dispatch brChicago Tribunei pA iNew York Timesi Notable Book pbFinalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in BiographybbrbbrThe Arab Revolt against the Turks in World War I was, in the words of T. E. Lawrence, a sideshow of a sideshow. As a result, the conflict was shaped to a remarkable degree by a small handful of adventurers and low-level officers far removed from the corridors of power. pAt the center of it all was Lawrence himself. In early 1914 he was an archaeologist excavating ruins in Syria by 1917 he was riding into legend at the head of an Arab army as he fought a rearguard action against his own government and its imperial ambitions. Based on four years of intensive primary document research, iLawrence in Arabiai definitively overturns received wisdom on how the modern Middle East was formed.p