Lawrence of Arabia and American Culture: The Making of a Transatlantic Legend

Hodson, Joel C. "Chapter 1: Lowell Thomas and the Origins of the Popular Legend of Lawrence of Arabia." Lawrence of Arabia and American Culture: The Making of a Transatlantic Legend. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1995.

This article relates the crucial role Lowell Thomas had in perpetuating the legend of T. E. Lawrence and his exploits in Arabia. Although the author, Joel C. Hodson, acknowledges that even without the American reporter’s aid Lawrence would have garnered a reputation as a war hero, nevertheless it was Thomas who breathed the fire of legend into the Englishman. After spending July 1917 to March 1919 in Europe and Arabia, as a war correspondent to several American newspapers, although in name only, Thomas returned to America. Through a series of lectures and slide shows, and the publication of several biographies, Thomas exaggerated the adventures of Lawrence in the Arabian front, painting him as a figure more of legend than of history. Nonetheless, Hodson remains critical of some of the conniving reporter’s actions. It is clear that Thomas’s government-sanctioned mission of war propaganda was quickly forgotten in his personal desires for commercial success and lasting fame. As a result of these more selfish motivations, Thomas fabricated many stories of Lawrence’s campaign, and even claimed involvement in several battles of the Arab Revolt and a train demolition led by Lawrence’s Bedouin.

Joel Hodson’s article serves as an interesting piece of commentary on the effect that fabrication can have on the formulation of great public figures. It works as an interesting point of comparison between the methods that figures like the reporter, Thomas, and later the director of Lawrence of Arabia, David Lean, must utilize in order to dramatize history’s heroes. It seems that without the involvement of persons like Thomas, Lawrence's legend would not persist with the strength it has today. Perhaps this is why Robert Bolt, the writer of the screenplay for Lawrence of Arabia, chose to include the figure of the reporter within his film. It seems that life, just like film, needs its writers in order to create myths out of men.

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Lawrence of Arabia and American Culture: The Making of a Transatlantic Legend