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

Early life and intelligence work

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

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.

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). She then published Conquest of Violence: The Gandhian Philosophy of Conflict (1958), a widely reviewed and influential book on Gandhian politics.

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

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.

Selected works

• 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

• Gene Sharp

References

1. ^ Squatriglia, Charles (21 September 2006). "Joan Bondurant -- spy, authority on Gandhi ". 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 ". International Affairs. 36 (2). (Royal Institute of International Affairs: 215–216. doi:10.2307/2612055. JSTOR 2612055.
6. Anonymous (1958–1959). "Untitled ". Foreign Affairs. 37: 516.
7. Heimsath, Charles H. (July 1959). "Untitled ". Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 324: 197–198. doi:10.1177/000271625932400183. S2CID 144648173.
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.

External links

• Sketches of India (autobiographical work of first India trip, with many photos)
• At Bondurant family website
• Finding aid for the Joan V. Bondurant Papers, 1918-2003, Rare Books Special Collections & Preservation Department, University of Rochester.

• University of California, Berkeley alumni
• American political philosophers
• Writers from California
• 1918 births
• 2006 deaths
• World War II spies for the United States
• People of the Office of Strategic Services
• Gandhians
• University of the Pacific (United States) faculty
• University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance alumni
• People from Great Bend, Kansas
• American women non-fiction writers