THE SEVEN PILLARS OF WISDOM PDF, EPUB, EBOOK T. E. Lawrence,Robert Fisk | 736 pages | 05 Jul 2011 | Vintage Publishing | 9780099511786 | English | London, United Kingdom 7 Pillars of Wisdom to Build Your Life Upon - Topical Studies Lawrence was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his leadership at Tafileh and was promoted to lieutenant colonel. March Attack on the railway near Aqaba 19 April Attack using British armoured cars on Tell Shahm 16 September Destruction of railway bridge between Amman and Dera'a 26 September Attack on retreating Ottomans and Germans near the village of Tafas; the Ottoman forces massacred the villagers and then Arab forces in return massacred their prisoners with Lawrence's encouragement. Lawrence made a mile personal journey northward in June , on the way to Aqaba, visiting Ras Baalbek, the outskirts of Damascus, and Azraq, Jordan. He met Arab nationalists, counselling them to avoid revolt until the arrival of Faisal's forces, and he attacked a bridge to create the impression of guerrilla activity. His findings were regarded by the British as extremely valuable and there was serious consideration of awarding him a Victoria Cross; in the end, he was invested as a Companion of the Order of the Bath and promoted to Major. Lawrence travelled regularly between British headquarters and Faisal, co-ordinating military action. But by early , Faisal's chief British liaison was Colonel Pierce Charles Joyce, and Lawrence's time was chiefly devoted to raiding and intelligence-gathering. The Sharif of Mecca has given him the status of one of his sons, and he is just the finely tempered steel that supports the whole structure of our influence in Arabia. He is a very inspiring gentleman adventurer. Lawrence had first explored Arabia, from Wikipedia: In , Lawrence was offered the opportunity to become a practising archaeologist at Carchemish, in the expedition that D. Hogarth was setting up on behalf of the British Museum. He then went to work on the excavations at Carchemish, near Jerablus in northern Syria, where he worked under Hogarth, R. They were funded by the Palestine Exploration Fund to search for an area referred to in the Bible as the Wilderness of Zin, and they made an archaeological survey of the Negev Desert along the way. The Negev was strategically important, as an Ottoman army attacking Egypt would have to cross it. Woolley and Lawrence subsequently published a report of the expedition's archaeological findings,[40] but a more important result was updated mapping of the area, with special attention to features of military relevance such as water sources. Lawrence also visited Aqaba and Shobek, not far from Petra. Following the outbreak of hostilities in August , Lawrence did not immediately enlist in the British Army. He held back until October on the advice of S. Newcombe, when he was commissioned on the General List. Before the end of the year, he was summoned by renowned archaeologist and historian Lt. David Hogarth, his mentor at Carchemish, to the new Arab Bureau intelligence unit in Cairo, and he arrived in Cairo on 15 December In there was a new idea being talked about by the various leadership of the main tribes of non-Turkish Arabs. Arab leaders wondered if they could unite the hundreds of various small related desert tribes into individual countries, like Europe. The idea became an operative hope because of the war. Lawrence actively explored and promoted Arab freedom in the Arabian Kings' and princes' courts he visited within the Arabic-speaking Ottoman territories. Frankly, the Arab tribes were not the kind of people who enjoyed joining in anything, so these leaders were struggling not only with the Ottoman Turks and European powers, but with their own people. Lawrence was often acting unofficially on his own as an ambassador between Arab tribes, Arab princes, and his British overlords, as well as officially. He wrote of having bad headaches from this job of mediation between competitive tribes that he often assumed on his own initiative. Omg, MY own head hurt from reading about the petty and dangerous squabbles Lawrence dealt with constantly between leaders. And then there were the knife fights between individuals from different tribes in the field! It reminded me of a schoolyard monitor trying to keep neighborhood teenage gang members from shooting each other over petty insults and old grudges. One of Lawrence's biggest disappointments after the war was the betrayal of the Arabs by the European war powers. They reneged on their promises to the Arab Kings to support their bid for creating Arab nations free from colonialism. He had made friends among the Arabs, and he felt like he had been put into the unwilling position of a Judas goat. Besides describing the war missions of blowing up train tracks, bridges and of attacking Turkish camps, Lawrence describes Arab customs and ways of life in his memoir. He spoke fluent Arabic, so he was able to suss out what the tribes thought of each other and the British outsiders from an insider's viewpoint. He did not hesitate to live as Arabs did, eat as they did, dress as they did. Considering the harsh deserts and rural poverty they lived in, it was important he learned their ways to survive the huge swing of temperatures from summer to winter, the lack of water and available foodstuffs, the lack of roads, airports, navigable rivers, etc. He really had to learn how to ride and care for camels. He became an expert! But he really really pushed himself and the people assigned to follow him or be his guides into terrible environments that even the Arabs found daunting. There were awful bugs, and going without bathing for weeks and no food and water for days! Because of a strong willfulness of character, he often went on these dangerous journeys alone looking for Turk encampments and good places to blow up, making maps. From many poetic descriptions of the land in his memoir I think he loved being in those isolated but beautiful rocky and sandy places with only a riding and a supply camel, no matter that he could meet Turkish soldiers or unfriendly Arabs. Because of the cultural individualism of Arab mentality, an Arab or tribe could switch allegiances because of perceived insults, whim or bribes. Lawrence navigated through all of the difficulties despite being a British foreigner. Lawrence's parents were not married, but he was the second of five sons. He was born in Wales, but the family moved from there to Scotland and later England. As a bastard, he probably could never have married into a 'good' family. However, many of his friends believed him asexual. From reading his memoir, I think he may have been homosexual, but he definitely was not very active sexually, if so. I agree with many who think he was a masochist. There are reports he hired men to whip him after the war. I think these stories are true. He underwent unthinkable deprivations and sufferings in wartime service to his country, and he chose to serve in one of the most inhospitable places for humans to survive - Arabia. There is a famous incident of sexual torture and possible rape when he was captured by Turks while on a reconnaissance mission. He notes in this book "how in Deraa that night the citadel of my integrity had been irrevocably lost. Lawrence There are maps, appendixes of soldiers and their companies, tables of positions and movements, and indexes of places and people. View all 7 comments. This is the book that the film Lawrence of Arabia is loosely based upon. I say loosely, because after finishing the book I rented the film and watched it all the way through for the first time since I was a kid. It was only then that I realised that although the film is a magnificent piece of film-making, it is very inaccurate in places and often just simply wrong. Lawrence was much more extraordinary and his achievements and much more astonishing even than the amazing portrayal of him in This is the book that the film Lawrence of Arabia is loosely based upon. Lawrence was much more extraordinary and his achievements and much more astonishing even than the amazing portrayal of him in the film. But, I suppose the difficulty of making a film of 'Lawrence of Arabia' is, how do you compress so much into so little time and how do you explain certain things simply and quickly. Hence the film seems to me now like a series of snapshots of events that did happen and some that didn't, but perhaps including the made up stuff to make the story on screen flows better. He was no soldier, but he read Clausewitz and all the other great military theorists, created his own war and applied all he learned to great effect. Nobody told him to capture the strategic port of Aqaba - that was his idea. He enrolled the Arab tribesman in the project, rode across the desert and took it. And that was almost just the start! The first because I think this book is surprisingly personal or intimate for a book written shortly after WWI. Not so much that he had them, but that a national hero, who turned down a knighthood and a Victoria Cross not to mention two Croix De Guerres, writing shortly after World War One, would share such things with the general public. So a typical paragraph may be Lawrences meeting with Maahmoud, renowned desert warrior of the Abu-Orense, son of Ali, scourge of the Waddi-Odd, blood enemies of the Abu Tayi, and so on.