Gunnar Myrdal
• Born in Gustaf's parish, Sweden on December 6, 1898
• Died in 1987 at age 88
• Graduated from the Law School of Stockholm University in 1923 and began practicing law while continuing his studies at the University.
• In 1927 he received his juris doctor degree in economics and was appointed docent in political economy.
• He studied in Germany and Britain from 1925-1929
• In 1929 Myrdal took his first trip to the United States and stayed until 1930 as a Rockefeller Fellow.
• While in the United States he published his first books including The Political Element in the Development of Economic Theory.
• He then returned to Europe and served for one year as Associate Professor in the Post Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland.
• In 1933 he was appointed to the Lars Hierta Chair of the Political Economy and the Public Finance at the University of Stockholm as successor of Gustav Cassel.
• Myrdal was active in Swedish politics and was elected in 1934 to the Senate as a member of the Social Democratic Party.
• Myrdal was commissioned by the Carnegie Corporation of New York in 1938 to direct a study of the American Negro Problem.
• In 1944 the material collected in his study of the American Negro Problem was interpreted and published as An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy.
• Upon returning home to Sweden in 1942 Myrdal was re-elected to the Swedish Senate, served as a member of the Bank of Sweden, and was Chairman of the Post-War Planning Commission.
• From 1945-1947, Myrdal served as Sweden's minister of commerce; he left this position though to accept an appointment as Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.
• In 1957 he left this position to direct a study of economic trends and policies in South Asian countries for the Twentieth Century F...