The meanings of oriental masquerade in T.E. Lawrence’s Arabian ventures

This article explores the changing trajectory of T.E. Lawrence’s interaction with the Arab East on the eve of modernity. It traces his pre-First World War scholarly interest in Levantine antiquities (his archaeological expeditions in Syria), through to his subsequent military engagement in the Arab Revolt (1916–1918). An analysis of Lawrence’s adoption of various forms of Middle-Eastern attire provides a narrative of the events that led to his metamorphosis from a passive scholar into an active soldier. The article examines the homoerotic strands in Lawrence’s assumption of Oriental disguise and highlights its metaphorical significance vis-à-vis the political marriage of British imperial interests and Arab nationalist ambitions in the Arab campaign. The article finally draws on the implications of the Anglo–Arab alliance and its impact on changing the region and altering the image of the ‘Unchanging East’.     

The Coloured People of South Africa

Miss Attles, a sister of the Prime Minister, has worked in theUnion for 37 years, first in the Railway Mission and since 1929in Claremont, a suburb of Cape Town. This article representspart of a lecture on the 30th April with the Dowager CountessBuxton in the Chair. After the discussion, the Union Governmentfilm Towards the Future was shown, giving the obverse side ofthe medal, with schools and amenities greatly in advance ofconditions in comparable areas, like the West Indies.     

Lawrence ‘of Arabia’ – one more appraisal

An addition to the ocean of Lawrentiana needs an apology. The following essay was conceived at a graduate class which the present writer held at the School of History at Tel‐Aviv University in 1974 on T. E. Lawrence, the man and his image. Ten intelligent men and women, most of them in their twenties, all committed and reasonably well‐read, could not but produce in the course of an academic year ideas and thought splinters worth recording. In the interests of professional sobriety – students of political history sticking to their last – I have here cut what does not pertain to Lawrence ‘of Arabia’, regretfully and with marginal exceptions. The responsibility for the account is of course entirely mine.

That TEL should be able after this eternity to inspire balanced enthusiasm as a ‘think piece’ is in itself a testimonial.     

Australia and Israel: a Diasporic,Cultural and Political Relationship

Australia and Israel: a Diasporic, Cultural and Political Relationship. Edited by Shahar Burla and Dashiel Lawrence (Brighton, Chicago and Toronto: Sussex Academic Press, 2015), pp. vi + 246. US$34.95 (cloth).     

The Indian army in the present war

Tibet, Record of a Journey. By Alan Winnington. Published by Lawrence and Wishart, Ltd., London. 1957. Pp. 235. 1 coloured plate and 27 illustrations; sketch maps under each cover with author's itinerary. 25s.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed in this article:
The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisted , by Benny Morris
The Modern History of Iraq , by Phebe Marr
Inventing Iraq: The Failure of Nation Building and a History Denied , by Toby Dodge
Seeds of Hate: How America's Flawed Middle East Policy Ignited the Jihad , Lawrence Pintak
Transnational Political Islam: Religion, Ideology and Power , ed. Azza Karam
Islamic Political Identity in Turkey , by M. Hakan Yavuz     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed in this issue. Craig Arceneaux and David Pion‐Berlin, Transforming Latin America: The International and Domestic Origins of Change. Steven Levitsky and María Victoria Murillo, eds., Argentine Democracy: The Politics of Institutional Weakness. Benjamin Kohl and Linda Farthing, Impasse in Bolivia: Neoliberal Hegemony and Popular Resistance. Consuelo Cruz, Political Culture and Institutional Development in Costa Rica and Nicaragua: World Making in the Tropics. Carmelo Mesa‐Lago and Jorge Pérez‐López, Cuba's Aborted Reform: Socioeconomic Effects, International Comparisons, and Transition Policies. Damián J. Fernández, ed., Cuba Transnational. Paul Lawrence Haber, Power from Experience: Urban Popular Movements in Late‐Twentieth‐Century Mexico. Leslie Anderson and Lawrence Dodd, Learning Democracy: Citizen Engagement and Electoral Choice in Nicaragua, 1990‐2001. Jeremy M. Weinstein, Inside Rebellion: The Politics of Insurgent Violence.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed in this issue. How We Missed the Story: Osama bin Laden, the Taliban, and the Hijacking of Afghanistan , by Roy Gutman. The Strongest Tribe: War, Politics, and the Endgame in Iraq , by Bing West. Nights in the Pink Motel: An American Strategist's Pursuit of Peace in Iraq , by Robert Earle. The Persian Gulf in History , by Lawrence G. Potter, ed. One State, Two States: Resolving the Israel/Palestine Conflict , by Benny Morris. Russia and the Arabs: Behind the Scenes in the Middle East from the Cold War to the Present , by Yevgeny Primakov (translated by Paul Gould).     

The Study of Religion and Society in Contemporary Asia: Colonialism and Beyond; Asian Visions of Authority: Religion and the Modem States of East and SoutheastAsia

Abstract

In 1989, the Islamicist Bruce Lawrence suggested that, in a global context, the term fundamentalism should be replaced by the term antimodernism, which, to Mark Juergensmeyer, “suggests a religious revolt against the secular ideology that often accompanies modern society.” The papers in this volume are similarly concerned with the social implications of “religious revolt,” i.e., of continued religious vitality in lands that had presumably adopted “modern” patterns of secular nationalism. Such thinking, however, raises deeper issues about the very notion of “modernity.”     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed in this issue.
Last Chance: The Middle East in the Balance , by David Gardner.
Foreign Policy, Inc.: Privatizing America's National Interest , by Lawrence Davidson.
Lion of Jordan: The Life of King Hussein in War and Peace , by Avi Shlaim.
King Hussein of Jordan: A Political Life , by Nigel Ashton.
The Nuclear Sphinx of Tehran: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the State of Iran , by Yossi Melman and Meir Javedanfar.
The Crisis of Islamic Civilization , by Ali A. Allawi.
Secularism and Muslim Democracy in Turkey , by M. Hakan Yavuz.
Secularism and State Policies toward Religion: The United States, France and Turkey , by Ahmet T. Kuru.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Middle Eastern Politics and Ideas: A History from Within , Edited by Moshe Ma'oz and Ilan Pappé. Gulf Security in the Twenty-First Century, edited by David E. Long & Christian Koch. The Persian Gulf at the Millennium: Essays in Politics, Economy, Security and Religion, edited by Gary G. Sick and Lawrence G. Potter. Coalition, Coercion and Compromise: Diplomacy of Gulf Crisis, 1990-1991, by Gordon S. Brown. Islamist Impasse, by Ibrahim Karawan. Faces of Lebanon - Sects, Wars and Global Extensions, by William Harris. The Reconstruction of Palestine: Urban and Rural Development, edited by A. B. Zahlan. In Search of Islamic Feminism: One Woman's Global Journey, by Elizabeth Warnock Fernea. The Turkish Labyrinth: Ataturk and the New Islam, by James Pettifer.     

Performing Aboriginal Rights in 1951: From Australia's Top End to Southeast

In 1951, performers from Daly River and Tiwi Islands Aboriginal communities staged a corroboree strike. The musicians and dancers had routinely entertained visiting cruise ships in the Darwin Botanic Gardens, but now joined dockside workers to protest the jailing and exiling of two Aboriginal agitators Lawrence Wurrpen (Urban) and Fred (Nadpur) Waters. In Melbourne, the Australian Aborigines' League expressed solidarity with the Darwin strikes and protested the exclusion of Aboriginal voices from the Jubilee of Australian Federation. The League's leaders Doug Nicholls and Bill Onus produced a new work of musical theatre featuring east coast Aboriginal performers Fred Foster, Margaret Tucker, Georgia Lee, Harold Blair, and others in ‘Out of the Dark — An Aboriginal Moomba’. In this paper we examine political uses of performance in Australia's assimilation era, and show how Aboriginal agitators used music and dance to connect struggles for rights across Australia, and to keep cultural identity alive. In doing so we show how performance operated both as work and as assertion of cultural sovereignty.     

The Cultural Revolution in Inner Mongolia 1967–1969: The Purge of the “Heirs of Genghis Khan”

This is the edited text of the Lecture which he delivered to the Society on 8 January 2008, immediately after he had been presented with the Sir Percy Sykes Medal. 1 1. The Sir Percy Sykes Memorial Medal, established in 1947, in memory of Sir Percy Sykes (1869–1945), a British soldier and diplomat who spent 25 years associated with Iran, and was author of one of the first histories of that country, A History of Persia, as well as of the travel book Ten Thousand Miles in Persia. The medal is ‘to be awarded by the Council of The Royal Society for Asian Affairs at such time or times as the council may in its discretion think fit, to any distinguished traveller, writer or other distinguished person whatsoever approved by the Society, who is deemed to have increased man's knowledge of and stimulated man's interest in Asian countries, or done work furthering cultural relations between the Commonwealth and Asian countries?…’. Sit Percy Sykes is not to be confused with his contemporary, Sir Mark Sykes, co-author of the 1916 Anglo-French ‘Sykes-Picot’ Agreement. Previous recipients of the award have included Freya Stark, Albert Hourani, Ella Maillart, Hugh Richardson, Giuseppe Tucci, Gunnar Jarring, Denis Wright, Peter Hopkirk, Mark Tully and William Dalrymple. (See Activities of the Society, page 332 of this issue.)     

Book NOTES

BIOGRAPHICAL REGISTER OF THE QUEENSLAND PARLIAMENT 1930–1980. By D.B. Waterson and John Arnold.
BLACK ARMADA: Australia and the Struggle for Indonesian Independence 1942–49.
PUBLIC POLICY AND CATHOLIC SCHOOLS. By Helen Praetz.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR JAPANESE STUDIES: History and International Relations. Vol. 6:l. Edited by John W.M. Chapman.
AFRICA GUIDE 1982. Edited by Enver Carim.
INSIDE THE THIRD WORLD: The Anatomy of Poverty. Second edition. By Paul Harrison.
FROM EMBARGO TO OSTPOLITIK: The Political Economy of West German-Soviet Relations 1955–1980. By Angela Stent.
GROUND RULES: Soviet and American Involvement in Regional Conflicts. By Joanne Gowa and Nils H. Wessell.
WORLD POLITICS SINCE 1945. Fourth edition. By Peter Calvocoressi.
AN INVITATION TO THE LAW. By C. G. Weeramantry.
DECENTRALISATION: Options and Issues. A Manual for Policy Makers. By Edward P. Wolfers, Diana Conyers, Peter Larmour & Yash P. Ghai.
DISARMAMENT AND WORLD DEVELOPMENT. Edited by Richard Jolly.
CHANGE PROCESSES IN INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS. By Lawrence T. Farley.
ON THE AUTONOMY OF THE DEMOCRATIC STATE. By Eric A. Nodlinger.     

THE FIRST WORLD WAR AND THE MIDDLE EAST

The First World War in the Middle East swept away five hundred years of Ottoman dominion. It ushered in new ideologies and radicalized old ones – from Arab nationalism and revolutionary socialism to impassioned forms of atavistic Islamism. It created heroic icons, like the enigmatic Lawrence or the modernizing Atatürk, and it completely re-drew the map of the region, forging a host of new nation states, For many, the self-serving intervention of these powers in the region between 1914 and 1919 is the major reason for the conflicts that have raged there on and off ever since. Yet many of the most common assertions about the First World War in the Middle East and its aftermath are devoid of context. This article argues that, far from being a mere sideshow to the war in Europe, the Middle Eastern conflict was in fact the centre of gravity in a war for imperial interests. Moreover, contrary to another persistent myth of the First World War in the Middle East, local leaders and their forces were not simply the puppets of the Great Powers. The way in which these local forces embraced, resisted, succumbed to, disrupted, or on occasion overturned the plans of the imperialist powers for their own interests in fact played an important role in shaping the immediate aftermath of the conflict – and in laying the foundations for the troubled Middle East.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this articles. Historical Records of Australia: Resumed Series III Despatches and Papers Relating to the History of Tasmania Volume IX Tasmania, January ‐ December 1830. General Editor Peter Chapman, Co‐editors Peter Chapman and Tim Jetson Australia Imagined: Views from the British Periodical Press 1800‐1900. Edited by Judith Johnston and Monica Anderson John Devoy's Catalpa Expedition. Edited by Philip Fennell and Marie King Return to Gallipoli: Walking the Battlefields of the Great War. By Bruce Scates Jack Lang and the Great Depression. By Frank Cain Documents on Australian Foreign Policy: Australia and the Formation of Malaysia 1961‐1966. Edited by Moran Dee Car Wars: How the Car Won Our Hearts and Conquered Our Cities. By Graeme Davison with Sheryl Yelland Fear and Politics By Carmen Lawrence Disputed Histories: Imagining New Zealand's Pasts. Edited by Tony Ballantyne and Brian Moloughney Revolution: The 1913 Great Strike in New Zealand, Edited by Melanie Nolan Facing Illness in Troubled Times: Health in Europe in the Interwar Years 1918‐1939. Edited by Iris Borowy and Wolf D. Gruner Darwin's Origin of Species: A Biography. By Janet Browne The Dilemmas of De‐Stalinization. Negotiating Cultural and Social Change in the Khrushchev Era. Edited by Polly Jones Anti‐Chinese Violence in Indonesia: 1996‐1999. By Jemma Purdey. Marx's Das Kapital. A Biography. By Francis Wheen     

Imperialism and dependence

Abstract

“Indonesia [is] endowed … with what is probably the most strategically authoritative geographic location on earth …” So wrote Lawrence Griswold in Sea Power, the official journal of the Navy League of the United States in 1973. A nation so located, and with 130 million people, some of the world's richest deposits of oil, tin, bauxite, rubber, forestry reserves, and many other natural resources, is surely a place of major concern to the imperialist powers at a time when their empires are so rapidly shrinking. Particularly for the U.S. since the victory of the Vietnamese revolution, the vast resources and critical location at the juncture of the Pacific and Indian Oceans have likely made Indonesia, along with Iran and Brazil, a major lynchpin “of a new pro-U.S. constellation of power in the Third World.” There was no slip of the tongue when Richard M. Nixon referred to Indonesia as the “greatest prize in the Southeast Asian area.” Earlier some commentators had suggested plausibly that the massive American war effort in Vietnam after 1965 was linked intimately with the successful right-wing military takeover in October of that year in Indonesia, a takeover followed by one of the largest massacres in modern times and the establishment of a military dictatorship which has ruled the country for more than 11 years. During those years, the natural resources and large potential supply of cheap labor have motivated several multinational corporations to invest in Indonesia, and the profits from their operations have flowed to Japan, West Germany, and the U.S.     

Book Notes

THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF IMPERIALISM: Its Theoretical and Polemical Treatment from Mercantilist to Multilateral Imperialism. By Dan Nabudere PROTEST AND PARTICIPATION: The New Working Class in Italy. By John R. Low-Beer THE POLITICS OF ECONOMIC DECLINE: Economic Management and Political Behaviour in Britain since 1964. By James E. Alt CRISIS AND LEGITIMACY: The Administrative Process and American Government. By James O. Freedman ILLUSIONS OF CONFLICT: Anglo-American Diplomacy toward Latin America, 1865–1896. By Joseph Smith THE FINAL SOLUTION AND THE GERMAN FOREIGN OFFICE: A Study of Referat D III of Abteilung Deutschland 1940–43. By Christopher R. Browning ALBANY TO ZEEHAN: A New Look at Local Governments. By Ruth Atkins THE CAMBRIDGE APOSTLES: The Early Years. By Peter Allen A CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF AUSTRALIA. By W.G. McMinn ‘IT'S COMING YET…’: An Aboriginal Treaty within Australia between Australians. By Stewart Harris GOVERNMENT POLITICS AND POWER IN AUSTRALIA. Edited by John Summers, Dennis Woodward and Andrew Parkin STRUCTURAL ADAPTATION IN AN AILING ECONOMY: Report to the Study Group on Structural Adjustment (Crawford Committee). By Peter B. Dixon and Alan A. Powell NATIVES AND STRANGERS: Ethnic Groups and the Building of America. By Leonard Dinnerstein, Roger L. Nichols and David M. Reimers THE OFFICE OF GOVERNOR-GENERAL. By Paul Hasluck THE QUALITY OF POLICE EDUCATION: A Critical Review with Recommendations for Improving Programs in Higher Education. A Report prepared with the Support of the Police Foundation. By Lawrence W. Sherman and the National Advisory Commission on Higher Education for Police Officers THE WEALTH REPORT. Edited by Frank Field THE MACMILLAN DICTIONARY OF AUSTRALIAN POLITICS. Edited by Dean Jaensch and Max Teichmann OIL AND AUSTRALIA'S FUTURE: Economic, Social and Political Aspects. Edited by Theo van Dugteren OIL AND WORLD POWER. By P.R. Odell. Fifth edition MATTHEW ARNOLD: Culture, Society and Education. By Imelda Palmer CAPTAIN JAMES COOK IMAGE AND IMPACT: South Seas Discoveries and the World of Letters. Volume II - The Pacific Syndrome: Conditions and Consequences. Edited by Walter Veit     

Reviews

Manuel de Politique Musulmane. Editions Bossard, 43 Rue Madame Paris. 1925.

The Heart of Aryavarta. By the Earl of Ronaldshay, P.C., G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E. Constable and Company Ltd. 14s.

Through Khiva to Golden Samarkand. By Ella R. Christie. Seeley, Service. 21s.

The People of the Steppes. By Ralph Fox. Twelve illustrations and map. Constable and Co. 1925. Pp. 246. 8s. 6d.

A Thousand Years of the Tartars. By E. H. Parker, Professor of Chinese in the Victoria University, Manchester. Fourth Edition. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co. 1924.

Mosul and its Minorities. By Harry Charles Luke. Martin Hopkinson. 10s. 6d.

With Lawrence in Arabia. By Lowell Thomas. Hutchinson. 21s.

Through Inner Deserts to Medina. By the Countess Malmignati. Philip Allan and Co. 10s. 6d.

The Lost Oases. By A. M. Hassanein Bey. Messrs. Thornton Butterworth, Ltd. 21s.

1. The Early History of Bengal. By the late F. J. Monahan, Indian Civil Servant. Oxford University Press. 1925.

2. The Early History of Bengal. By R. C. Mazumdar, Professor of History in the University of Dacca. Dacca University Bulletin No. 3. Oxford University Press. 1925.

Census of India, 1921. Vol. IV.: Baluchistan. By Major T. C. Fowle and Rai Bahadur Diwan Jamiat Rai, C.I.E.

English‐Baluchi Colloquial Dictionary. By Major George Waters Gilbertson, assisted by Gháno Khán Haddiani. Published by the Author.     

Book Notes

Book reviewed in this article: SOCIOLOGY. By S. Giner SUPER POWERS AND WORLD ORDER. Edited by Carsten Holbraad THE ORIGINS OF THE COLD WAR, 1941-1947: A Historical Problem with Interpretations and Documents. Edited by Walter LaFeber AFRICA IN TRANSITION: Geographical Essays. Edited by B. W. Hodder and D. R. Harris ENVIRONMENT AND LAND USE IN AFRICA. Edited by M. F. Thomas and G. W. Whitington INSIDE VIEW: Three Lectures on Rime Ministerial Government. By Richard Crossman POLITICAL PARTIES IN MODERN BRITAIN: An Organizational and Functional Guide. Edited by John D. Lees and Richard Kimber CAN BRITAIN SURVIVE? By D. E. Bland and K. W. Watkins CROSSING THE FLOOR. By Humphrey Berkeley THE GLADSTONES: A Family Biography 1764-1851. By S. G. Checkland THE CAUSES OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION 1629-1642. By Lawrence Stone THE POLITICS OF PROTECTION: Lord Derby and the Protectionist Party 1841-1852. By Robert Stewart AN IMPERIAL WAR AND THE BRITISH WORKING CLASS: Working-class Attitudes and Reactions to the Boer War 1899-1902. By Richard Price COLLECTED PAPERS ON THE JACOBITE RISINGS: Volume 2. By Ruport C. Jarvis THE MARKET IN A SOCIALIST ECONOMY. By Wlodzimierz Brus MY CONSULATE IN SAMOA: A Record of Four Years' Sojourn in the Navigators Islands, with Personal Experiences of King Malietoa Laupepa, his Country, and his Men. By William B. Churchward KIDNAPPING IN THE SOUTH SEAS. By Captain George Palmer TREASURY OFFICIALS 1660-1870. Compiled by J. C. Sainty THE PEELITES AND THE PARTY SYSTEM 1846-52. By J. B. Conacher THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONALISTS: Modem Critical Essays. Edited by Chris Wallace-Crabbe THE GLORIOUS YEARS OF AUSTRALIA FAIR FROM THE BIRTH OF THE BULLETIN TO VERSAILLES. By Graeme Inson and Russel Ward LAW AND CRIME: Essays in Honor of Sir John Barry. Edited by Norval Morris and Mark Perlman THE POLICEMAN'S POSITION TODAY AND TOMORROW: An Examination of the Victorian Police Force. By Paul R. Wilson and John S. Western A BIOGRAPHICAL REGISTER OF THE QUEENSLAND PARLIAMENT, 1860-1929. By D. B. Waterson A BIOGRAPHICAL REGISTER OF THE VICTORIAN PARLIAMENT, 1859-1900. By Kathleen Thomson and Geoffrey Serle STYLE MANUAL FOR AUTHORS, EDITORS AND PRINTERS OF AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS