Joan Bondurant

Joan Valerie Bondurant (1918–2006) was an American political scientist and former spy for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II.[1] She is best known as the author of Conquest of Violence (1958), a book on Gandhian political philosophy.

Joan Bondurant
Born(1918-12-18)December 18, 1918
Great Bend, Kansas
DiedSeptember 12, 2006(2006-09-12) (aged 87)
Tucson, Arizona[1]
CitizenshipAmerican
Alma materUniversity of Michigan
Scientific career
FieldsPolitical science, civil resistance, nonviolent revolution
InstitutionsUniversity of California, Berkeley, University of the Pacific
InfluencesMohandas K. Gandhi

Early life and intelligence work

Bondurant was born on 16 December 1918 in Great Bend, Kansas.[1][2] She was gifted in the piano, and graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in music.[1]

When World War II broke out, she learned Japanese, and was sent to work for the OSS in India, arriving in New Delhi in May, 1944.[3]:189

Scholarly career and later life

While in India, she met Mahatma Gandhi, and became interested in his nonviolent approach to politics. Returning to the US, Bondurant obtained a doctoral degree in political science at the University of California, Berkeley (1952).[4] She then published Conquest of Violence (1958), a widely reviewed and influential book on Gandhian politics.[5][6][7]

Later, she took a job teaching at University of the Pacific.[1]

Her collection of personal and research papers was given to the Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation of River Campus Libraries at the University of Rochester in 2012 and was opened to researchers in 2015.[8]

Works (selected)
  • Bondurant, Joan V. (1988). Conquest of violence: the Gandhian philosophy of conflict (New Revised ed.). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691022819. OCLC 17385168.
    • Bondurant, Joan V. (1958). Conquest of violence: the Gandhian philosophy of conflict (1st ed.). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. OCLC 154176074.
  • Fisher, Margaret Welpley; Joan V. Bondurant (1956). The Indian experience with democratic elections. Berkeley, CA: University of California. OCLC 989639.
  • Fisher, Margaret Welpley; Joan V. Bondurant (1956). Indian approaches to a socialist society. Berkeley, CA: Institute of International Studies, University of California. OCLC 845127212.
  • Bondurant, Joan V. (1946). Sketches of India, with forty-one photographic illustrations. Ann Arbor, MI: Craft Press. OCLC 4579134.

See also

References
  1. Squatriglia, Charles (21 September 2006). "Joan Bondurant -- spy, authority on Gandhi [obituary]". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 18 June 2013.
  2. AncientFaces. "Joan V Bondurant (1918 - 2006)". AncientFaces. Retrieved 18 June 2013.
  3. McIntosh, Elizabeth P. (1998). Sisterhood of Spies: The Women of the OSS. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 9781557505989. OCLC 38042887.
  4. Bondurant, Joan V. (1952). Gandhian satyagraha and political theory: an interpretation. Berkeley, CA: Thesis (Ph.D. in Political Science)--University of California, Berkeley). OCLC 21684829.
  5. Alexander, Horace (April 1960). "Untitled [review of Conquest of Violence: The Gandhian Philosophy of Conflict, by Joan V. Bondurant]". International Affairs. (Royal Institute of International Affairs. 36 (2): 215–216. doi:10.2307/2612055. JSTOR 2612055.
  6. Anonymous (1958–1959). "Untitled [review of Conquest of Violence: The Gandhian Philosophy of Conflict, by Joan V. Bondurant]". Foreign Affairs. 37: 516.
  7. Heimsath, Charles H. (July 1959). "Untitled [review of Conquest of Violence: The Gandhian Philosophy of Conflict, by Joan V. Bondurant]". Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 324: 197–198. doi:10.1177/000271625932400183.
  8. "Papers of World War II spy, friend of Mahatma Gandhi now fully available to the public - NewsCenter". 2015-12-31. Retrieved 2016-07-08.
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