Myrdal

Myrdal is an area in Aurland, Norway. Its only built-out facilities is Myrdal Station on the Bergen Line and the Flåm Line. There is a small station village surrounding the station.

Coordinates: 60°44′07″N 7°07′24″E / 60.73528°N 7.12333°E / 60.73528; 7.12333

Gunnar Myrdal

Karl Gunnar Myrdal (Swedish: [ˈmyːɖɑːl]; 6 December 1898 – 17 May 1987) was a Swedish Nobel laureate economist, sociologist, and politician. In 1974, he received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with Friedrich Hayek for "their pioneering work in the theory of money and economic fluctuations and for their penetrating analysis of the interdependence of economic, social and institutional phenomena." He is best known in the United States for his study of race relations, which culminated in his book An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy. The study was influential in the 1954 landmark U.S. Supreme Court Decision Brown v. Board of Education.

Childhood

Myrdal was born on 6 December 1898 in Gustafs, Sweden, to Karl Adolf Pettersson (1876–1934), a railroad employee, and his wife Anna Sofia Karlsson (1878–1965). He took the name Myrdal in 1914 after his ancestors farm Myr in Dalarna.

Education and early career

There is a possibly apocryphal story about an interaction between him and Gustav Cassel, where Cassel was reported to say, "Gunnar, you should be more respectful to your elders, because it is we who will determine your promotion," and he replied, "Yes, but it is we who will write your obituaries."