[rating:3]
( New York: Harper Collins, 2010)
762 pgs
I have read numerous books on leadership. Many of them provide helpful insights on the crucial topic. Yet I have also found that these books often say many of the same things. At times Christian authors are merely taking what secular writers have produced and creating a baptized version, replete with supporting Bible verses. That is why, along with almost always having a leadership book on the go, I also read biographies. I often find I learn more by studying the lives of particular leaders than I do by reading books devoted solely to the subject of leadership. Of course, in reading a biography, you see flaws and shortcomings as well as successes. While we tend to place successful people on pedestals, no one is without their faults and failures. Perhaps that is what makes them so appealing.
I must confess that I was familiar with the name, Lawrence of Arabia even though I knew almost nothing about him. This biography provided me the opportunity to become introduced to someone whose impact on the world continues to be felt. It also provided an informative survey of a history of the Middle East as well as World War One. For someone who loves history, this was great!
I won’t attempt to relate his entire story here, as it took the author 700 pages to do so. Rather I’ll summarize his life and then mention some interesting leadership issues that arose from the book.
T. E. Lawrence was, like many famous people, the product of a troubled home. His father, had been a British aristocrat, married to a fanatically religious woman, who gave birth to four daughters. Lawrence’s father ultimately abandoned his wife, daughters, and estate, and began a new life with his daughters’ governess. Lawrence of Arabia was illegitimate being born to unwed parents whose relationship was scandalous. Lawrence always felt like his father made a mistake by walking away from his position and possessions. Ironically, perhaps plagued by guilt, Lawrence’s mother became devoutly religious and sought to push her religious convictions on her children. Lawrence, stubbornly resistant, refused to be dominated by his mother. Noted Lawrence: “No trust existed between my mother and myself . . . I always felt that she was laying siege to me, and would conquer if I left a chink unguarded” (124).
As a boy, Lawrence set a goal of becoming a general and a hero by the age of 30 (7). This was not an easy task. Not only was he illegitimate, in an age and society where such a status closed numerous doors of opportunity, but he also stood only 5’5” tall (6). It is fascinating how many short people (men in particular) throughout history have made herculean efforts to loom large in warfare.
Korda introduces his book by claiming: “This book, therefore, is about the creation of the legend, a mythic figure, and about a man who became a hero not by accident, or even by one single act of heroism, but who made himself a hero by design, and did it so successfully that he became a victim of his own fame” (xvii).
Lawrence would become a brilliant, if irregular, student at Oxford University and would commence his adult life as an archeologist in the Middle East. It would be World War One that provided him the opportunity to become the hero of his childhood dreams. The horrific and mindless casualties of trench warfare on the western front in which hundreds of thousands of Europe’s youth charged into the face of cannon and machine gun barrages, provides stark contrast to the colorful and exotic escapades of the battles in the Middle East. Of all the millions of young men who served during World War one, Lawrence of Arabia may well have emerged as the most famous.
Lawrence would become legendary after he was assigned to unite and mobilize the Arab forces, largely Bedouins, into a fighting force that could resist the Turkish army that held Palestine and the Arabian Peninsula. For two years, between 1917-1918, Lawrence would achieve spectacular results and participate in the liberation of Damascus. After the war, he would play a leading role in the eventual creation of the monarchies in Iraq and Jordan. He would then spend most of the remainder of his days serving in the British Army and Air Force. He would become a celebrity in Britain much like Lady Diana would later become. He would become friends with many of the most powerful leaders of his day, including Winston Churchill and Lady Astor. He would also receive numerous decorations and medals that he would routinely refuse. He also wrote several books, his most famous, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, which would win him international acclaim and the friendships of many of Britain’s leading authors, including George Bernard Shaw, whose last name he would ultimately borrow for himself. Lawrence was ultimately killed in a motorcycle accident at the age of 46.
There are a number of leadership issues that arise from this book. For one, we are confronted with someone with plenty of “demons” in his life which Lawrence struggles his entire life to purge. It is perhaps the flawed heroes such as Admiral Nelson that attract peoples’ sympathy and make such people enigmas to those who study their lives. Lawrence’s life also raises the age-old question of whether history makes great people or great people make history. Korda notes: “Without this war, Lawrence might never have accomplished his ambition, but once it came he was prepared for it, both morally and physically” (xvi). Lawrence demonstrated that he was clearly an unusually talented individual. He was a great writer. He also had a brilliant eye for detail with an enormous and vivid memory. He was also unusually gifted mechanically and would later use that skill to develop vehicles for the navy. He also was gifted at making and retaining friends. Furthermore, Lawrence had an impeccable sense of timing. Often when reading biographies of famous people one is struck by the apparent “luck” that these people had in being in the right place at the right time with the right skills. This is certainly the case with Lawrence.
Nevertheless, Lawrence’s success cannot be attributed merely to luck. There were millions of talented young men involved in World War One who never enjoyed his success. Lawrence was obviously enormously ambitious. Notes Korda, “He always radiated a powerful, even incandescent enthusiasm and curiosity that seemed to light up everything he saw, however, weary, footsore, or sick he was” (177). Lawrence also drove himself well beyond what most people could have stood. He seemed to despise his human weakness and drove himself to become indifferent to pain or hunger or sickness. While working on his thesis for Oxford, he spent a summer in the Middle east in which he walked 1,000 miles in temperatures often as high as 107 degrees, while visiting 36 castles for his research (169). Notes Korda, “He lived at some point beyond mere stoicism, and behaved as if he were indestructible . . .” (198). He also notes: “His keenness, energy, and capacity for hard work drew peoples’ attention” (258).
Lawrence seems to embody the life of someone supremely ambitious who also was talented and enjoyed above average intelligence. Notes Korda, “When he thought that humility and modesty were called for, Lawrence could give an excellent performance of both” (295). Lawrence provides a bundle of contradictions. On the one hand he sought early in life to become famous, yet on the other hand he shunned medals and awards and seemed to despise the limelight. It was noted by one observer that “Lawrence had already mastered the art of seeking to avoid the limelight while actually backing in to it” (356). Lawrence once confessed, “I could flatter as well as flutter” (405).
Lawrence held high standards for himself, and seemed to agonize when he did not meet them. Even while he was enlisting Arabs to fight for their freedom, he was aware that the British and French had already drawn up the infamous Sykes-Picot Agreement that was described as “the product of greed at its worst” (276). As a result, Lawrence felt like a traitor rather than a hero at the war’s end. Once he had freed Damascus, he confessed, “It seemed that I had given them all my gift, this false liberty drawn to them by spells and wickedness, and nothing was left me but to go away” (433). Korda also discusses Lawrence’s strange behavior in hiring someone to physically punish him, as if to make him suffer for his sins. Even in writing best-selling books on the war, he forfeited any royalties so he did not earn money from what he considered to be a dastardly business.
There is, as there is for every hero, a dark side to Lawrence. He suffers at times from depression and even nervous breakdowns. At times during the war, he had to execute wrongdoers and even to kill a close friend, rather than allow him to fall into the torturous hands of the enemy. Lawrence also suffered capture and was brutalized by his enemies. Lawrence watched people butchered in war and witnessed numerous broken promises as well as crass greed and corruption. Out of these experiences, Lawrence did not know how to handle his fame and the adoration of the public. So he changed his name (twice) and joined the Air Force. Once that duty was complete, he joined the army. Yet he refused to accept any rank, even when it was urged upon him by some of the most powerful people in the nation. It is as if he was horrified by what he had done as a leader so he vigorously avoided accepting a role where he would ever have to lead people again. Yet, ironically, he continually exerted influence upon others, even while holding the lowest rank in the military. He wrote letters to prime ministers and kings as well as to the heads of military departments. Notes Korda, “His capacity for extracting awe and respect from his superiors was also undiminished” (670).
Korda notes that, much like Lady Diana would experience later in the century, Lawrence struggled to deal with the adoring mobs that constantly followed him. Lawrence confessed, “I’m very weary of being stared at and discussed and praised. What can one do to be forgotten? After I’m dead, they’ll rattle my bones about in their curiosity” (642). Indeed, even after his death, he has not been forgotten. Over 100 books have been written about him. Several movies, including the most famous, in which Omar Sharif played Lawrence, that garnered ten Academy Award nominations.
Lawrence represents a flawed person who struggled to find the balance between his enormous ambition, his exceptional talents, his high ideals, and the reality of sin and corruption. Religion did not play a significant role in his life. Perhaps the hypocrisy of his mother drove him away from faith, or perhaps his own stubborn determination to live his life his own way kept him from yielding his life to anyone, including God. As a result, we see a talented man who never found the peace he was looking for.
Lawrence summarized his own life best in his own famous words:
All men dream: but not equally.
Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their
Minds wake in the day to find that it was
Vanity; but the dreamers of the day are
Dangerous men, for they act their dream
With open eyes, to make it possible. This I did.
I enjoy biographies, especially well-written ones. I enjoyed this one. Perhaps in part because it addressed the history of the Middle East and helped me gain a better understanding of how it arrived where it is today. Korda is a good writer. He uses numerous quotes and allusions to history that I found interesting. He also occasionally utilizes a humorous writing style, such as when he notes: “Lloyd George had always treated Churchill with the respect most sensible people reserve for a fused hand grenade” (510).
Overall I would conclude that this book would not be the first place you would turn if you were looking for a comprehensive study on leadership. Lawrence would not be the first person I would recommend studying if you wanted to learn great leadership skills. Rather, this deeply flawed, yet brilliant character, operating in a complex and dangerous environment, brings to the surface many of the issues related to leadership. Not being a Christian, we also see the limits to what ambition and talent can accomplish, without the enabling presence of the Holy Spirit and the freedom that comes from God’s grace.