Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East

Lawrence never received formal military training, but he achieved the rank of Colonel in the British Army. Discuss how he achieved the rank and compare his training to yours.

Lawrence initially studied archeology and architecture at Oxford; these pursuits first drew him to the Middle East. The knowledge he gained was instrumental in his securing a military position in the Middle East. Thanks to his knowledge of the Arab world and the Ottoman Empire, "he was sent to nurture the Arab revolt against Turkish rule, started by Sherif Hussein of Mecca with the aim of creating a single Arab state stretching from Syria to Yemen"(MacIntyre 2010). In contrast to my own training, the knowledge Lawrence obtained was largely experiential -- he did not study military theory in-depth or go through basic training and was iconoclastic...
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