James Spencer's Reviews > Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East

A history of World War I in the Middle East through the eyes of several notable participants, focusing on Aaron Aaronson, a Zionist agronomist who established a spy network in Palestine, Curt Prufer, a German intelligence agent, William Yale, an American oil man who becomes the State Departments main agent in the Middle East, and of course Lawrence. Anderson's goal is to demonstrate how the British and French in particular managed to create the Middle East that for the last 100 plus years has been a nightmare of violence and conflict, a goal that he accomplishes extraordinarily well.