Reddit reviews Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East (ALA Notable Books for Adults)

I highly recommend Scott Anderson's Lawrence in Arabia where he goes in depth about how TE Lawrence predicted the Sykes-Picot agreement would lead to a huge amount of conflict in the region.

And one of T.E. Lawrence's regrets as well. He had argued that Gallipoli was a destined failure -- instead suggesting Alexandretta.

Intelligence indicated that Alexandretta locals and military were sympathetic to Entente (later shown that they were), meaning the beachhead could be made easily.

Unfortunately for the soldiers, the Alexandretta plan was scrapped due to diplomatic pressures from France. See Alexandretta is right near Syria, a region in which the French had staked a claim earlier in the War (see Sykes-Picot Agreement).

When pressured to land in Syria, the French insisted that any invading force be, by majority, French. However, the French could not spare the troops to perform the invasion... thus Alexandretta was abandoned and Gallipoli was chosen (note how there's only 1 French unit in the GIF).

What's crazy is that the British Intelligence and T.E. Lawrence attempted to sell this plan THREE times... and the French shot it down every time. It is insane to think how the tide of the war would have turned if the Triple Entente had invaded near Alexandretta. It's possible that the invasion could have saved at least some of the Armenians being killed by the Ottoman's.

Source: Lawrence in Arabia by Scott Anderson

Lawrence in Arabia

It's more about the modern Middle East region taking shape during WWI than it is a biography of T.E. Lawrence. It's very interesting and I highly recommend it.

There are plenty of books about the subject. I'm reading this one now: Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East

While I said that war is normally a part of my strategy, I usually don't end up going for Conquest or Domination victories if I can help it. Normally I'll go for one of the peaceful victories because conquering the world can get kind of tedious. The reason I go to war is just to make my empire more powerful/secure. Like conquering my entire continent or an enemy "wonder city". I play Civ with friends occasionally and when I say that I am usually a peaceful player, they always point out that I am the most warlike player of our group. Maybe there are some real world parallels there.

The book is called Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East by Scott Anderson. It follows Lawrence of Arabia and a few other lesser known individuals and how they affected the war in the middle east in WW1. It doesn't really read like history and it's pretty easy to follow.