Joan Bondurant
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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 World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. She is best known as the author of ''Conquest of Violence: The Ghandian Philosophy of Conflict'' (1958), a book on
Gandhian The followers of Mahatma Gandhi, the greatest figure of the Indian independence movement, are called Gandhians. Gandhi's legacy includes a wide range of ideas ranging from his dream of ideal India (or ''Rama Rajya)'', economics, environmentalism, ...
political philosophy.


Early life and intelligence work

Bondurant was born on 16 December 1918 in
Great Bend Great Bend is a city in and the county seat of Barton County, Kansas, United States. It is named for its location at the point where the course of the Arkansas River bends east then southeast. As of the 2020 census, the population of the ci ...
,
Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to th ...
. She was gifted in the piano, and graduated from the
University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
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 New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Ho ...
in May, 1944.


Scholarly career and later life

While in India, she met
Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
, and became interested in his
nonviolent Nonviolence is the personal practice of not causing harm to others under any condition. It may come from the belief that hurting people, animals and/or the environment is unnecessary to achieve an outcome and it may refer to a general philosoph ...
approach to politics. Returning to the US, Bondurant obtained a doctoral degree in political science at the
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
(1952). She then published ''Conquest of Violence: The Ghandian 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

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See also

*
Gene Sharp Gene Sharp (January 21, 1928 – January 28, 2018) was an American political scientist. He was the founder of the Albert Einstein Institution, a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the study of nonviolent action, and professor of pol ...


References


External links


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