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World War I

The Defeated

In battles of no renown My fellows and I fell down,
And over the dead men roar The battles they lost before.
The thunderstruck flagstaffs fall,

T. E. Lawrence and the Character of the Arabs


In a letter of December 1910, the young T. E. Lawrence defined civilization as "the power of appreciating the character and achievements of peoples in a different stage than ourselves." No Englishman had a greater understanding of the past glory of Arab civilization and the modern contrast between nomads and city folk; of the desert tribes and customs; of homosexuality and asceticism, fanaticism and religion; of the Bedouin methods of warfare, their blood feuds, bribery, plunder, and massacres; of the heights and depths of the Arab character.