With Lawrence in Arabia

by Lowell Thomas

Overview

In 1918, as the First World War ravaged the European continent, young American journalist Lowell Thomas traveled to Arabia to report on the revolts breaking out as an indirect result of the savage European conflict. While in Jerusalem, he met and struck up a friendship with the young British captain, T.E. Lawrence. Based on his travels and interviews with Lawrence, Thomas wrote the now classic With Lawrence in Arabia, the book that spawned the Lawrence of Arabia legend and served as the basis for the award-winning 1961 film of the same name.

Fantastically paced with equal measures of fact and adventure, Thomas narrates the exploits of the infamous British agent who against all odds managed to join several factious Arabian tribes into a single combat unit. With Lawrence in command, this guerilla force would go on to defeat the great Turkish Army and ensure the eventual demise of the previously impenetrable Ottoman Empire.

On the sweeping and the exotic Arabian desert that serves as the setting for this epic account, Thomas brings to life dozens of great historical figures including Emir Feisel, King Hussein I of Hedjaz, British General Edmund Allenby, and Lawrence, the enigmatic, “modern knight of Arabia.” With new forewords by modern explorers, this Explorer’s Club Classic edition of With Lawrence in Arabia is a must-have for every history buff and arm-chair adventurer.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781023491488
Publisher:	Anson Street Press
Publication date:	03/29/2025
Pages:	270
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.63(d)

About the Author

Lowell Thomas was an American writer, broadcaster, and world traveler. He was the author of more than a dozen books in his lifetime, including the classic With Lawrence in Arabia (1924). He passed away in 1981.

Mitchell Stephens is historian and a professor of journalism in the Carter Institute at New York University. He is the author of The Voice of America: Lowell Thomas and the Invention of 20th-Century Journalism, as well as A History of News, a New York Times “notable book of the year.” He had the privilege of following Lowell Thomas's trail around the world and into Arabia.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments for the 2017 Edition vii

Introduction ix

Introduction to the 2017 Edition xi

I A Modern Arabian Knight 3

II In Search of a Lost Civilization 11

III The Archaeologist Turned Soldier 33

IV The Cult of the Blood of Mohammed 47

V The Fall of Jeddah and Mecca 58

VI The Gathering of the Desert Tribes 77

VII The Battle at the Wells of Aru El Lissal 90

VIII The Capture of King Solomon's Ancient Seaport 99

IX Across the Red Sea to Join Lawrence and Feisal 109

X The Battle of Seil El Hasa 129

XI Lawrence the Train-Wrecker 137

XII Drinkers of the Milk of War 149

XIII Auda Abu Tayi, the Bedouin Robin Hood 155

XIV Knights of the Black Tents 164

XV My Lord the Camel 174

XVI Abdullah the Pock-Marked, and the Story of Ferraj and Daoud 181

XVII An Eye for an Eye and a Tooth for a Tooth 188

XVIII A Rose-Red City Half as Old as Time 199

XIX A Bedouin Battle in a City of Ghosts 219

XX The Relative in My House 230

XXI Through the Turkish Lines in Disguise 240

XXII The Greatest Hoax Since the Trojan Horse 253

XXIII A Cavalry Naval Engagement and Lawrence's Last Great Raid 261

XXIV The Downfall of the Ottoman Empire 272

XXV Lawrence Rules in Damascus, and the Treachery of the Algerian Emir 288

XXVI Tales of the Secret Corps 301

XXVII Joyce & Co., and the Arabian Knights of the Air 309

XXVIII Feisal and Lawrence at the Battle of Paris 321

XXIX Lawrence Narrowly Escapes Death ; Adventures of Feisal and Hussein 333

XXX Lawrence Flees From London, and Feisal Becomes King in Bagdad 345

XXXI The Secret of Lawrence's Success 364

XXXII The Art of Handling Arabs 374

XXXIII Lawrence the Man 390