IV.

Reputation

Since the 1950s scholars have studied every aspect of Lawrence’s life from his illegitimate family background and his sex life to his psychological condition. Too often, these examinations pander to those interested in salacious detail, and they say as much about the time in which they were written as they do about Lawrence. Traditional scholarship focusing on Lawrence’s role in shaping history—exemplified by Jeremy Wilson’s magisterial official biography Lawrence of Arabia: Authorized Biography of T. E. Lawrence (1992)—struggles against the personalized, polarized literature of Lawrence’s admirers and detractors.

Lawrence was undoubtedly a remarkable man who made his biggest mark in World War I. Lawrence described his war in his carefully crafted book The Seven Pillars of Wisdom (privately published in 1922 and then publicly available from 1935). The military importance of the Arab Revolt and Lawrence’s role in it have been exaggerated, a situation not helped by Lawrence’s sometimes fanciful account in Seven Pillars. Lawrence was one of a number of British officers attached to the Hashemite Arabs, although he was the liaison officer closest to Faisal. However, as an advocate and practitioner of guerrilla warfare, Lawrence’s style of fighting in Arabia attracted much post-war interest, not least his ideas of mobilizing local people against the ruling power.