Small Wars Journal

NYT Book Review: Arabian Knight

Sun, 12/26/2010 - 7:56am
Arabian Knight - New York Times book review of Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia by Michael Korda. NYT review by Ben Macintyre. BLUF: "Most treatments of Lawrence's life can be divided into debunkings and hagiographies. Hero by Michael Korda, as the title implies, is closer to the latter category."

Comments

Joe (not verified)

Sun, 12/26/2010 - 11:46am

It's a decent read but if you really want to know about Lawrence read Prince of our Disorder by John Mack which was published in 1976. It received the Pultizer Prize and was written by a trained Harvard Psychiatrist. Very interesting study of Lawrence's personality as well as the history he was involved in.

Seaworthy

Sun, 12/26/2010 - 12:30pm

Joe - Although Doctor John Mack's book is rather speculative on his part, I agree, it is quite interesting.

A better companion source to "Hero," which I found well researched and presented, would be Jeremy Wilson's "Lawrence of Arabia: The Authorized Biography of T.E. Lawrence" as well as his other works.

Wilson also maintains a remarkable web site on T.E. Lawrence for those interested, in addition to his blog on Lawrence.

Jason (not verified)

Mon, 12/27/2010 - 3:53am

John Mack's book has received a lot of negative publicity recently mainly as it portrays a man from a psychiatrist's point of view, but as dead men can't speak (nor defend themselves) it really is only one sided and based on speculation.

I found Michael Korda's new book 'Hero' to be well balanced and didn't shy away from those areas that others do. I also found that it uncovered some previously unknown information, and I've read just about everything on TEL including scholarly journals.