Myrdal, << MIHR dahl, >> Gunnar (1898-1987), was a Swedish sociologist and economist. He gained fame for his influential studies of major world problems. Myrdal wrote many books. His best-known work, An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy (1944), examined race relations in the United States. Myrdal also studied economic and social problems in less developed nations. In Asian Drama: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations (1968), he criticized government corruption and called for reform.
Myrdal shared the 1974 Nobel Prize in economics with Friedrich von Hayek of Austria. His wife, Alva R. Myrdal, was a winner of the 1982 Nobel Peace Prize (see Myrdal, Alva R. ).
Karl Gunnar Myrdal was born on Dec. 6, 1898, in Gustafs, near Sandviken, Sweden. He received a law degree and a doctor of laws in economics degree from Stockholm University. Myrdal later taught at Stockholm University and held several positions in government. He was minister of commerce in the Swedish Cabinet from 1945 to 1947. From 1947 to 1957, he served as executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. In 1960, he became director of the Institute of International Economic Studies in Stockholm. He died on May 17, 1987.
