This deceptively simple book is constructed with great subtlety. On one level, it is splendid social history. Graves draws a lucid, detailed portrait of the social experimentation that was prevalent during the Roaring Twenties. He couples this portrait with a detailed analysis of political life between the two wars. Graves shows that he is not limited to a European perspective in his fine book on the Middle East, Lawrence and the Arabs.
Graves understands perfectly the stake of the European powers in the Middle East.
He also explores the exact significance of T.E. Lawrence. The subsequent history of the twentieth century teaches us that even today we are still learning to be Robert Graves' contemporaries. Graves was born in Wimbledon, England in 1895 and grew up in a protected middle-class environment. These complacently accepted beliefs were shattered by Graves' experience as a twenty-year old officer in the Royal Welch Fusiliers. From the early part of the war, Graves fought in the trenches of Northern Europe with determination and valor.