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In Our Time: Lawrence of Arabia

Lawrence of Arabia

BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, Lawrence of Arabia

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Lawrence of Arabia for this year's Listener Week

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Lawrence of Arabia, the legend and its context, an idea drawn from over 1200 suggested by listeners this autumn

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss T.E. Lawrence (1888 – 1935), better known as Lawrence of Arabia, a topic drawn from over 1200 suggestions for our Listener Week 2019.  Although Lawrence started as an archaeologist in the Middle East, when World War I broke out he joined the British army and became an intelligence officer. His contact with a prominent Arab leader, Sharif Hussein, made him sympathetic to Hussein’s cause and during the Arab Revolt of 1916 he not only served the British but also the interests of Hussein.  After the war he was dismayed by the peace settlement and felt that the British had broken an assurance that Sharif Hussein would lead a new Arab kingdom.  Lawrence was made famous by the work of Lowell Thomas, whose film of Lawrence drew huge audiences in 1919, which led to his own book Seven Pillars of Wisdom and David Lean’s 1962 film with Peter O'Toole.

In previous Listener Weeks, we've discussed Kafka's The Trial, The Voyages of Captain Cook, Garibaldi and the Risorgimento, Moby Dick and The Thirty Years War.

With 

Hussein Omar 
Lecturer in Modern Global History at University College Dublin 

Catriona Pennell 
Associate Professor of Modern History and Memory Studies at the University of Exeter

Neil Faulkner 
Director of Military History Live and Editor of the magazine Military History Matters

Producer: Simon Tillotson

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