WE'LL MISS YOU ANDRE GUNDER FRANK
From: J. B. "Jack" Owens
Colleagues,
I have just received word of the death of the noted economist and historian
Andre Gunder Frank. He died early in the morning on Saturday,
23 April 2005, in Luxembourg, where he had moved with his wife, Alison
Candela, in order to live near his son Miguel and his family.
Frank was perhaps best know for his contributions to dependency and world
systems theory, and his earliest interest in these approaches grew out of
his concern for modern Latin America, which he retained throughout his life.
A number of his books and articles took as their focus the impact of the
links established by the expansion of Portuguese and Spanish domains outside
of Europe, and particularly in the Americas.
His last major work was the book *ReORIENT: Global Economy in the Asian
Age* (University of California Press, 1998). The central argument of the
book is that in the first global age, 1400-1800, all major regions were
connected and interacted all of the time. Therefore, the history of no place
could be understood without taking into account the way it was linked to
other places in this vast global system. To grasp history on this scale
required what Frank described as a "holistic global analysis." The
production of precious metals, especially silver, in the mines of Castile's
American domains was central to the book's argument.
Frank had lived with cancer for over a dozen years and had endured four or
five major operations. He was well along in the writing of a book on world
history in the nineteenth century, and despite pain and exhaustion,
continued to work up until about two weeks ago.
His family will have a small gathering to express their love for Gunder
before he is cremated on Tuesday afternoon, April 26, in the Luxembourg
crematory. Friends and colleagues who wish or are able to attend are welcome
to come. Because Luxembourg law requires a rapid cremation, Gunder's son
Paul sent a message two days ago to all of the people on his father's huge
list of e-mail contacts to let them know that he was dying. The family
wanted to allow those who were able to do so to make travel arrangements.
The family has been a bit overwhelmed by the response because they have
already received over a thousand messages of condolence, remembrance, and
friendship from friends and colleagues of Gunder's all over the world, and
they report that they probably will not be able to answer all of them
personally. However, if you have something that you would like to share with
them, here is the contact information.
Alison Candela, his wife: acandela@citlink.net Miguel Frank, his son:
mfrank@europarl.eu.int Miguel's phone number in Luxembourg is +352 091 656
236 Paul Frank, his son: paulfrank@post.harvard.edu
Respectfully,
Jack
--
ZNet remembers Andre Gunder Frank here.
More on Gunder Frank's life and work here.
