Description
Book SynopsisAt the start of the twentieth century, British intelligence agents began to venture in increasing numbers to the Arab lands of the Ottoman Empire, drawn by the twin objectives of securing the route to India and finding adventure and spiritualism in an antique land. But these competing objectives created a dilemma: how were they to discreetly and patriotically gather facts in a region they were drawn to for its legendary inscrutability and promise of fame and escape from Britain? Spies in Arabia tracks the intelligence community''s tactical grappling with this dilemma and its myriad cultural, institutional, and political consequences during and after the Great War. Arguing that violence and culture were more closely allied in imperial rule than has been recognized, it tells the story of an imperial state dependent on equivocal agents groping through a fog of cultural notions and an interfering mass democracy towards a new style of covert empire centered on a brutal aerial surveillance
Trade Reviewa significant addition to the historiography of the First World War beyond Europe... [An] impressive study... * Nadia Atia, History Workshop Journal *
[An] impressive work which ambitiously seeks to explore the cultural space within which political, military and intelligence personnel operated. * Keith Jeffery, Asian Affairs. *
This book is nuanced, challenging, nicely written, interesting and thought-provoking... rich and rewarding... It is a book that is sure to be well received and it will further our understanding of Britain and the Middle East. * Matthew Hughes, History *
Table of ContentsPART I: WAR AND HOPE; PART II: PEACE AND TERROR
