This was the first book to question the veracity of T. E. Lawrence. The author was a well known man of letters and had been a serving British officer on the Western Front. He was indignant that Lawrence had come to be regarded as the greatest English hero of World War I. Today, historians accept that Seven Pillars of Wisdom is mostly fiction; but in 1955, Aldington was put under a virtual boycott for saying so. It is very curious that a neurotic like Lawrence should have become the object of a cult of personality that is almost unique in the 20th century. If, as his many admirers maintain, Lawrence was a sort of genius, his genius lay in making himself a full blown myth. Aldington, a fine writer, is almost forgotten, which is a pity. His book is extensively researched and fluently written.

Interesting book... picked up in used bookstore. The author has an attitude but admits it early. Excellent research and support of his conclusions... a realistic look at the Legend. A historical piece that will interest those with some knowledge of Lawrence. It is dated but still timely... when looking at heroes, you need to walk around them ... and this book does.

A good read. Honest, insightful, intelligent and exciting.

How can you give only a four star rating to a piece of first hand historical evidence? After all the author was also the man that helped lead and coordinate the arab revolt.

Any student of Lawrence will be able to tell you that the version of 'Revolt in the Desert' that finally reached the public was a heavily censored sanitised version of what really happened. Lawrence himself has been reported by contemporary sources as having burnt the first couple of drafts due to some of the content (potential references to Lawrences ambiguous sexuality, alleged atrocities carried out by sections of the arab army on Turkish POWs etc. Lawrence was also a self confessed - and reported as - a line shooter). All this said if you've read official military histories of this period and know a bit about Lawrence then this book will help you get the feel of sand in your boots. A good piece of source material or a rattling good adventure yarn but you would do well to keep in the back of your mind who wrote this and when it was written.

Enjoy, a rare treat to read a campaign history by one who was there and writes with the flair of an academic as opposed to a soldier.

The author is faced with the difficult task of showing that T.E. Lawrence embellished his own deeds without taking away from what he did accomplish. While the myths about the man are interesting (the classic Lawrence of Arabia movie) the real story is far more interesting. A great book.

Very Interesting book for those avid readers interested in the few years before and after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. The book shows how England decieved the Arabs by making false promises of independence once the Arabs completed thier revolt against the Ottomans. Arabs ended up with British and French mandates instead. Lawrence was himself betrayed by his own government. The book gives a lot of detail on the daily life of bedouins, so some might find it interesting. The author should have dealt more with Lawrence's view of Zionism and the Balfour declaration and British policies in the region.

Everyone intrigued by the tale of Lawrence of Arabia as told in David Lean's epic film, will want to get a grip on this disturbing end to the story. T.E. Lawrence may have been the most successful and famous real-life spy who ever lived. He could have been Prime Minister or Parlimentarian as was his less celebrated contemporary, Winston Churchill. Why did he instead enlist as a lowly private in several military regiments under assumed names, avoiding his fame? These are some of the questions Matthew Eden explores in this fascinating and well-researched novelization. It does not speculate endlessly, as many recent Lawrence books do, on the soldier's possible sexual preferences. But speculates plausibly on the possible uses others might have had for Lawrence, on Lawrence's own political interests, and the reasons why certain parties in 1935 might have wanted Lawrence dead. Best are the sequences of Lawrence and his beloved Brough Superior motorbike. Here are some of the best motorcycle riding descriptions I've ever read. I found it a very provocative book which inspired me to read further.

Not having read classical Greek literature before, I purchased this edition to see what it was all about. The book was fast-paced and entertaining. TE Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) did a good job translating Homer's work into an easily read entertaining story.

This is a nice book. Describes how stuborne T.E.L's friends were when any critic wanted to publish anything that contradicted their belifes. Mostly just a combination of the letters Aldington and others wrote while he was trying to publish his book on T.E.L.

We are still awaiting a truly great biography of T. E. Lawrence. Easily one of the most fascinating and complex individuals of the past century, Lawrence remains in many ways a cipher and an enigma. I found Peter Brent's volume in a used bookstore, and bought it for the superb illustrations as much as for the text. Luckily, the text provides a solid and useful treatment. Brent doesn't dissipate the mystery of Lawrence so much as introduce the reader to it. For instance, he juxtaposes Lawrence's apparent asexuality and revolt at physical contact with others with his pleasure in physical masochism, without a serious attempt to provide a solution to this mystery. He makes several suggestions that many of Lawrence's difficulties in life may have been related to a sense of being an illegitimate child and a consciousness of being rejected by his father's family, but he is not able to systematically relate this to specific instances of his life. At the same time, the book doesn't degenerate into psychobiography, something that could happen all too easily with someone as complex as Lawrence.

The bulk of the book deals with the Arab Revolt against Turkey, and Lawrence's role in it. The discussion is solid without being outstanding. Brent does a fine job of outlining the major issues in the conflict, describing the major figures in the conflict, and depicting the difficulties in any happy resolution. He treats Lawrence fairly, not minimizing his role, but not buying uncritically into the Lawrence legend. He neither tries to erect an idol nor destroy an icon. He also deals with Lawrence's life before WW I, and to a much lesser extent, his life after it. I wish the latter part of the book had been a bit fuller. I found the final years of Lawrence's life to be dealt with far too brusquely.

The illustrations make the book. There are photographs of nearly all the key figures, color reproductions of many of the illustrations from the original private edition of THE SEVEN PILLARS OF WISDOM (including a number of cartoonish depictions of Lawrence), and fascinating photographs of Lawrence from all stages of his life. Even if one did not wish to read the text, I could recommend this volume as a great visual companion volume to anyone reading THE SEVEN PILLARS OF WISDOM.

I found this book exremely biased, especially on its treatment of ethics and environmentalism, which were extremely collectivistic and altruistic. I felt like I was also overcharged for the text book, for something so vaguely written.

Most textbooks do a very poor job of addressing current issues in a clear, accurate, concise manner. This book, however, is to be commended. I especially found the resource information and discussion cases to be a tremendous benefit. The discussion questions and current event topics encourage the students to explore these issues outside of class, in their businesses and in the community. Business and society is a topic of extreme importance. Unfortunately, it often goes overlooked in so many universities and colleges. Overall, I rank this book as a worthwhile investment and hope the authors continue to explore these important issues in business and education.

I have read this book for a class, and was particularly unimpressed with the positions on civil rights (Chapter 11). Although the focus of this chapter(as with other chapters) was never how the authors personally felt about various issues and policy areas, reading this chapter alone would not tell you that. Ironically in a chapter about discrimination and stereotypes, there are plenty of generalizations.

Even though the authors grasped the idea of African American equality, they remark that "The creation of a more favorable public perception of efforts to alter the status of women is perhaps impede by the fact that the National Organization for Women (NOW) is regarded by many as being outside the American mainstream and dominated by extremists"(371)The authors then try and backpeddle by assuring readers that "In general, most major women's organizations do not take a negative stance against men"(372)The idea that the two verbatim quotes can actually be included in a professional allegedly netural work is beoynd disbelief.

Furthermore, the subsection on Disability is prefaced as victims. It fails to acknowllege that each of these subgroups (like women and African Americans) also had a role in their own respective struggles.

Key legislation and court cases concerning disabled children's right to a free appropriate public education is omitted, and the authors snidely reference "claims of learning disabilities"(378) Considering that the authors are teaching at public institutions, one must wonder what planet they have been living on for the past 20 years.

Gone completely is a discussion of the Asian American and Chicano rights movement. Native Americans and GLBT rights are squeezed in as an afterthought, which is particularly ironic given the current very visible presence of that movement.

I sympathize deeply with any student who has to read this textbook and urge you to do further research when you get to Chapter 10. I urge professors and faculty (if they have not do so already) to look for another book. While my public policy class turned out fairly well in spite of this book, others shouldn't have to repeat the same path if possible.