Lawrence in Arabia By Scott Anderson.  This book Is based on years of intensive primary document research,  Lawrence in  Arabia definitely overturns received wisdom on how the modern Middle East was formed. Sweeping in it’s action, keen in  its portraiture, acid in its condemnation of the destruction wrought by European colonial plots,  this is a book that brilliantly captures the way in which the folly of the past creates the anguish of the past.