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Loading... Seven Pillars of Wisdom, The Complete 1922 "Oxford" Text (Vol. I of II)by T. E. Lawrence
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In Seven Pillars of Wisdom we have a timely book, and one that will remain timely into the foreseeable future. In Lawrence we have an impeccable witness; not a diplomat, not a politician, not a lobbyist, but a scholar and a soldier who embodied that vestige of chivalry that has now all but vanished. He records what he saw and what he undertook, living among those warriors whom he led in a manner seldom experienced by any other officer. Hence, Lawrence had empathy for the Arabs that will hopefully be of keen interest to the present generations who are fed a daily diet of Islamophobia and Arabophobia, literally 'anti-Semitism', since it is the Arabs who are the sons of Shem. The picture given by Lawrence is of a people very different from today's media and Hollywood stereotypes that are part of a propaganda offensive to justify a genocidal war against a people and a faith which could not only have co-existed with, but which could have remained as firm friends, with the West on the basis of the friendship that had been cultivated by Lawrence. As Seven Pillars shows, the 'West' and the Arabs and all of Islam are now embroiled in a conflict that has it's roots in the diplomatic duplicity during World War I, which has brought chaos to a large expanse of the world, and which shows no signs of abating in the lifetime of any reader of this book. Lawrence here sets the dramatic background against which this tragedy is being played out. No library descriptions found. |
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Lawrence of Arabia's personal account of how he successfully led an Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire. Winston Churchill called this one of the “greatest books ever written in the English language.”
The 'Oxford' text privately published first in 1922 is a third longer than the 1926 fine-press abridged volume issued to subscribers. After his death, the subscribers' abridgement was published and its success was so huge that, despite pleas from critics and historians, no one would risk printing the fuller version.
Edited by Jeremy Wilson, the 'Oxford' text was first published by Castle Hill Press in 1997 in an edition of 752 three-volume sets. A second revised edition appeared in 2003 with an award-winning index. A trade edition was published by J. and N. Wilson in 2004.
This 2-volume paperback edition, based on the 2003 text with amendments includes two loosely-inserted colour maps not available in the second printing. - IRONJAW'S BOOK REVIEW, Review #1. December 15th 2014. ( )