In Seven Pillars of Wisdom we have a timely book, and one that will remain timely into the foreseeable future. In Lawrence we have an impeccable witness; not a diplomat, not a politician, not a lobbyist, but a scholar and a soldier who embodied that vestige of chivalry that has now all but vanished. He records what he saw and what he undertook, living among those warriors whom he led in a manner seldom experienced by any other officer. Hence, Lawrence had empathy for the Arabs that will hopefully be of keen interest to the present generations who are fed a daily diet of Islamophobia and...