Dorothy Drummond

 

Dorothy Drummond has spent most of her life as a freelance writer for geographical publications. She began her professional career as assistant to the editor of the Geographical Review, published by the American Geographical Society in New York City. She has authored or co-authored four world cultures textbooks, has written articles for professional journals and scores of encyclopedia articles, and has been an advisor in the making of educational films. Awarded Fulbright scholarships, Drummond and her husband spent a year doing research in Burma. At the time they met four Israeli agricultural experts, who later invited them to spend time in Israel as their guests. Drummond's intense interest in Israel and Palestine began with this experience. Her book "Holy Land, Whose Land? Modern Dilemma, Ancient Roots" is the outgrowth of extensive travel in the Middle East, as well as research to uncover the causes of conflict plaguing the region.

Visit Dorothy at www.dorothydrummond.com.

 

PageOneLit.com: Tell us a little about yourself

Dorothy Drummond: I am retired from teaching geography at Indiana State University. My life has been divided among writing, teaching, traveling, and parenting. I have authored or co-authored four world cultures textbooks as well as scores of encyclopedia articles on world cultures themes. I’ve taught at junior and senior high school levels and for the last forty years in higher education. I’ve traveled widely (to over 70 countries), including a Fulbright year in Burma, and a part time career leading educational tours to China, Australia, New Zealand, and Peru. I am a mother of three, a grandmother of two. I was born in San Diego and grew up in Oxnard, both in southern California. I went to the Midwest for college (Valparaiso University), taught for a year in California, returned to the Midwest for graduate school (Northwestern University), was on the staff of the American Geographical Society in New York City for two years, married and returned to Indiana. For most of my life I have lived in Terre Haute, Indiana, where my husband was on the faculty of Indiana State University and where, following his death, I also taught.

 

PageOneLit.com: Have reading and writing always been a part of your life? What did you like to read when you were a young girl?

Dorothy Drummond: I’ve always wanted to write. My most treasured gift was a thesaurus, which my father gave me when I was 10 years old. He understood me, and that’s what that gift said. I worked on our local city newspaper when I was in high school. I’ve also always been interested in places. As a girl I most enjoyed books about history and biography, always about explorers or missionaries or others who worked in exotic locales.

 

PageOneLit.com: What and/or what have been your biggest influences with regard to your writing, and why?

Dorothy Drummond: I had rigorous English teachers in both high school and college, who required a lot of writing. I learned to diagram sentences, to spell with ease, and to write a controlled prose. In retrospect, I am in their debt. I also found, when I got to graduate school, that my ability to write earned me a certain respect from professors, who after graduation asked me to work on projects they already had in the works. In this way I came to have encyclopedia contacts, film contacts, and the beginnings of book projects, all in some way related to geography and all giving me a chance to expand my interest in places all over the world.

 

PageOneLit.com: Your latest work is titled Holy Land, Whose Land? Modern Dilemma, Ancient Roots. What inspired you to write this book? How did you become interested in Israel and Palestine?

Dorothy Drummond: In the year 2000, the Millennial year, I was on my third trip to the Holy Land. The first had been in 1958, as guests of four Israeli agricultural experts whom my husband and I had met in Burma. They asked us to be their guest on our homeward journey, and we were fortunate to be in Israel during its tenth anniversary. We saw much of that New Jersey-sized country at that time. My second trip to the Holy Land was to Jordan, in 1994, where I saw the land east of the Jordan River. It so happened that my third trip coincided with the Pope’s visit to Israel, in March of 2000, and both Israelis and Palestinians had put into effect a truce on violence. So it was a peaceful visit in all respects. However, at the end of that time, on the wall overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem, I began to ask myself questions that I could not answer immediately: How is it that peace in this most city – holy to three faiths, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam -- can only be maintained at the point of a gun? His did it happen that two peoples have come to want the same piece of real estate, so much so that the whole world is involved in this conflict? Two years later the answers to those questions had become a book, whose title precisely reflects its contents: Holy Land, Whose Land? Modern Dilemma, Ancient Roots. The book has now been updated and is in its revised second edition, published in October, 2004.

 

PageOneLit.com: Holy Land, Whose Land? traces the complex history of the Holy Land over four thousand years. How much and what kind of research did you have to do for this book?

Dorothy Drummond: My own background in history and geography, my long-term interest in the history of religion, and my travel experiences gave me a head start, of course, but I needed to do a lot of reading to connect the dots. My reading has included much of the three holy books: the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament), the New Testament, and the Koran. It has also included a wide spectrum of scholarship, including almost all the names associated with Middle East expertise, both current and historical. Since publication of the first edition, in 2002, I have continued to read and remain alert to all phases of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Although the revised edition appeared before the death of Arafat, in my subsequent talks on the media and to live audiences I bring listeners up to date, concentrating on the evolving events in the Holy Land since Arafat’s death.

 

PageOneLit.com: Did you have a particular audience in mind when you wrote Holy Land, Whose Land?

Dorothy Drummond: Unconsciously, I did. The job of any educator -- at any level, pre-school through graduate school – is to make the complex understandable. Being an educator, it came naturally to me to think of the university students I had taught. They needed background, but they did not have time or passion to be inundated with the depth and density that marks most writing on the subject. Because through reading and reflection I had been able to answer my self-imposed questions, I wanted to write an account that would help others also to understand. So in a way I have written a Holy Land primer, for the intelligent reader.

 

PageOneLit.com: You do an excellent job of presenting the importance of the Holy Land to Christians, Jews, and Muslims without leaning towards one group. Was this difficult to do? Did you have a process for "keeping yourself honest," so to speak?

Dorothy Drummond: The more I read and researched, the more I became convinced that both Israelis and Palestinians, and Christians as well, have deeply-felt reasons for thinking and acting as they do. Often the reasons are rooted in faith and tradition, which colors interpretation of history. As well, each side also reflects a spectrum of thinking, from liberal to fundamental. "Keeping myself honest", as you express it, has not been difficult, because I want to make readers familiar with all sides. When I was teaching, I never felt that the classroom should offer a bully pulpit, and my writing reflects neutrality as well. It is important that Americans have an understanding of the controversy in which we are involved, like it or not. We need to understand how and why all sides think and act as they do. Most people who read my book sense my neutrality and are grateful for it. They also feel that I have enhanced their understanding of a tough Middle East issue.

 

PageOneLit.com: How did you choose the title "Holy Land, Whose Land? Modern Dilemma, Ancient Roots"?

Dorothy Drummond: The title went through several iterations. At one time it was to be "The Rock of Abraham". But eventually I hit upon the combination of words that precisely encompasses the contents of the book. Do I answer the question posed by the title?

 

PageOneLit.com: Do you answer the question posed by the title?

No, I do not. I leave that up to the reader. Probably most readers will come to the same conclusion that I have: that both sides have valid claims. A firm answer to the question will be supplied by readers whose convictions disallow expansion.

 

PageOneLit.com: Do you think we will ever achieve peace in the Holy Land?

Dorothy Drummond: "We," of course, implies a power that we as Americans do not have. On the other hand, Americans can take a giant step right now toward peace by supporting the Palestinian economy. Palestinians and Israelis, and they alone, will have to make the compromises that could bring about peace. The American government realizes that the Palestinians will be able to speak with more authority, and with the prospect of a viable state, if American financial aid is forthcoming. Under Arafat, any such aid would have gone through a sieve. But with Arafat dead, and 65 percent of the Palestinian electorate voting for a leader – Mahmoud Abbas – who is against terrorism and for negotiation, there is every reason for the United States to help Palestine. And this it is now doing.

Four barriers lie in the way of peace: the status of Jerusalem, insisted on as their capital by both Israelis and Palestinians; the existence and eventual fate of the 250,000 Jewish settlers in what will be the Palestinian state; the claim of four million Palestinians to the "right of return," which Israel cannot allow but for which restitution must be made; and the role of the religious fundamentalists on both sides, of whom the Islamist groups such as Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, dedicated to the overthrow of Israel, now pose the greatest threat. These are tough issues, but it is now clear that the vast majority of both Israelis and Palestinians want peace and an end to violence. The people have spoken. It is up to the politicians to make the tough compromises that will bring about peace. The most positive thing that has happened is that the two sides are now talking to each other.

 

PageOneLit.com: What do you hope readers walk away with after reading Holy Land, Whose Land? Modern Dilemma, Ancient Roots?

Dorothy Drummond: Most people think that the Holy Land controversy is so complicated that they will never be able to understand it. But after reading my book, lights go on. They connect dots of knowledge they already possessed. They are able to answer the two questions I posed to myself five years ago: "How is it that peace in Jerusalem can only be maintained at the point of a gun?" and "How did two peoples come to want the same bit of real estate so badly that the whole world is now involved in the controversy?"

I hope that in my account of the ancient roots and modern dilemma in the Holy Land, I have succeeded in my goal as an educator and a writer: to make the complex understandable

 

PageOneLit.com: Are you a disciplined writer? Do you have certain tricks you use so that you don’t stray from your writing.

Dorothy Drummond: My discipline chiefly involves recognition of my bio-rhythms. I am a morning person, and so I do most of my writing as soon after arising as possible. Fortunately, I also work fairly well under pressure. At that point, adrenalin overrides bio-rhythms.

 

PageOneLit.com: What is the last book you read?

Dorothy Drummond: Right now I’m reading Milton Viorst’s In the Shadow of the Prophet.

 

PageOneLit.com: Do you have any hobbies? Do they enhance your writing in any way?

Dorothy Drummond: My hobby, my passion, and my muse is travel. I bring to my hobby, by this stage of my life, a framework in time and place which enriches my travel and tends to interlink where I am with where I have been. I never know at what point something I have experienced will be reflected in my writing,

 

PageOneLit.com: Do you have any final thoughts to share with us?

Dorothy Drummond: At a time when much of the world seems to be erupting in conflict, conflict in which we as Americans are increasingly involved, we need to do what we can to understand what motivates the contenders. To this extent, I hope my book has made a contribution.

I’m especially pleased by the comments of two readers: Rep. Lee Hamilton, Co-Chairman of the 9/11 Commission writes that "Dorothy Drummond traces the complex history of the Holy Land over four millennia in an intelligent and accessible style."

And Ralph Allen Jr., writing in a review in The Professional Geographer, comments: "Dorothy Drummond speaks...with the ease of a gifted tour guide and the presence of a scientifically grounded, professional teacher."

More than that, I can’t ask for.