Lawrence of Arabia on War

Shortlisted for the British Army Book of the Year 2021.

‘A riveting account of T. E. Lawrence’s battles on and off the battlefield… Using scrupulous research and succinct prose, Johnson provides a gold mine of stratagems… a must-read for military leaders to come!’
Arnel P. David, Lt Col, US Army Special Advisor to the Chief of the General Staff (UK)

‘An innovative study of Lawrence that carefully and intelligently examines his campaigns and thinking on irregular warfare, and in doing so produces an accessible and intellectually stimulating work of military history.’
James Kitchen, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst

‘This is a major contribution to the literature on the Middle East in the Great War, and the history of military ideas – and it is highly relevant to contemporary armed force.’
Professor Gary Sheffield, University of Wolverhampton

Lawrence of Arabia is one of the most iconic figures of the First World War, seen by many as a heroic and romantic guerrilla leader in a period of savage and deeply impersonal industrial warfare. While Lawrence himself has been the subject of many biographies, and an award-winning film, the context of his war in the desert, and his ideas on war itself, are less well known.

Lawrence of Arabia on War is a study of those ideas and of his campaign of irregular warfare which has informed tactical theory and decision-making down to the present day, juxtaposed alongside the operations conducted by the Ottoman Empire and those of the Allied army in Palestine. It explores the challenges he faced in a complex environment against a more numerous and better armed adversary, and the manner in which he assessed what was changing, what was distinctive, and what was unique to guerrilla warfare in the desert. Setting Lawrence in his historical context, it examines the peace settlement process he participated in during 1919-20, analyses how other military writers made use of his ideas, and describes the ways in which his legacy has informed and inspired those partnering and mentoring local forces today.