Andre Gunder Frank (February 24, 1929 – April 25, 2005) was a German- American sociologist and

economic historian Economic history is the academic learning of economies or economic events of the past. Research is conducted using a combination of historical methods, statistical methods and the application of economic theory to historical situations and ins ...

who promoted

dependency theory Dependency theory is the notion that resources flow from a " periphery" of poor and underdeveloped states to a " core" of wealthy states, enriching the latter at the expense of the former. A central contention of dependency theory is that poor ...

after 1970 and

world-systems theory World-systems theory (also known as world-systems analysis or the world-systems perspective)Immanuel Wallerstein, (2004), "World-systems Analysis." In ''World System History'', ed. George Modelski, in ''Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems'' (E ...

after 1984. He employed some Marxian concepts on political economy, but rejected

Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

's stages of history, and

economic history Economic history is the academic learning of economies or economic events of the past. Research is conducted using a combination of historical methods, statistical methods and the application of economic theory to historical situations and i ...

generally.

Biography

Frank was born in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

to, pacifist writer Leonhard Frank and his second wife Elena Maqenne Penswehr, but his family fled the country when the Nazis came to power. Frank received schooling in several places in Switzerland, where his family settled, until they emigrated to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

in 1941. Frank's undergraduate studies were at Swarthmore College, founded as a Quaker college from which he gained an Economics degree in 1950. He earned his PhD in

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...

in 1957 at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

. His doctorate was a study of Soviet agriculture entitled ''Growth and Productivity in Ukrainian Agriculture from 1928 to 1955''. Ironically, his dissertation supervisor was

Milton Friedman Milton Friedman (; July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American economist and statistician who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and the ...

, a man whose ''

laissez faire ''Laissez-faire'' ( ; from french: laissez faire , ) is an economic system in which transactions between private groups of people are free from any form of economic interventionism (such as subsidies) deriving from special interest groups. ...

'' approach to economics Frank would later harshly criticize. Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s Frank taught at American universities. In 1962 he moved to

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

, inaugurating a remarkable period of travel that confirmed his peripatetic tendencies. His most notable work during this time was his stint as Professor of Sociology and Economics at the

University of Chile The University of Chile ( es, Universidad de Chile) is a public research university in Santiago, Chile. It was founded on November 19, 1842, and inaugurated on September 17, 1843.

, where he was involved in reforms under the socialist government of

Salvador Allende Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens (, , ; 26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) was a Chilean physician and socialist politician who served as the 28th president of Chile from 3 November 1970 until his death on 11 September 1973. He was the fir ...

. After Allende's government was toppled by a coup d'état in 1973, Frank fled to Europe, where he occupied a series of university positions. From 1981 until his retirement in 1994 he was professor in developmental economy at the University of Amsterdam. He was married to Marta Fuentes, with whom he wrote several studies about social movements, and with Marta he had two sons. Marta died in Amsterdam in June 1993. His second wife was sociologist Nancy Howell, a friend for forty years: while married to her, they lived in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

. Frank died in 2005 of complications related to his cancer while under the care of his third wife, Alison Candela.

Works and ideas

During his career, Frank taught and did research in departments of anthropology, economics, geography, history, international relations, political science, and sociology. He worked at nine universities in North America, three in Latin America, and five in Europe. He gave countless lectures and seminars at dozens of universities and other institutions all around the world in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German and Dutch. Frank wrote widely on the economic, social and political history and contemporary development of the world system, the industrially developed countries, and especially of the Third World and Latin America. He produced over 1,000 publications in 30 languages. His last major article, "East and West", appeared in the volume: "Dar al Islam. The Mediterranean, the World System and the Wider Europe: The "Cultural Enlargement" of the EU and Europe's Identity" edited by Peter Herrmann ( University College Cork) and Arno Tausch ( Innsbruck University), published by Nova Science Publishers, New York. His work in the 1990s focused on world history. He returned to his analysis of global political economy in the new millennium inspired by a lecture he gave at the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga (SSE Riga). In 2006 SSE Riga received Andre Gunder Frank's personal library collection and set-up the Andre Gunder Frank Memorial Library in his honor, with the support of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. Frank was a prolific author, writing 40 books. He published widely on political economy, economic history, international relations, historical sociology, and world history. Perhaps his most notable work is ''Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Latin America.'' Published in 1967, it was one of the formative texts in dependency theory. In his later career he produced works such as ''ReOrient: Global Economy in the Asian Age'' and, with Barry Gills, ''The World System: Five Hundred Years or Five Thousand''. Frank's theories center on the idea that a nation's economic strength, largely determined by historical circumstances—especially geography—dictates its global power. He is also well known for suggesting that purely export oriented solutions to development create imbalances detrimental to poor countries. Frank has made significant contributions to the

(which, according to him, should be rather called the World System one). He has argued that a World System was formed no later than in the

4th millennium BC The 4th millennium BC spanned the years 4000 BC to 3001 BC. Some of the major changes in human culture during this time included the beginning of the Bronze Age and the invention of writing, which played a major role in starting recorded history. ...

; his argument contrasts sharply with the scholarly majority who posit beginnings in the "long 16th century" (a position held, for example, by Immanuel Wallerstein). Frank also insisted that the idea of numerous "world-systems" did not make much sense (indeed, if there are many "world-systems" in the world, then they simply do not deserve to be called "world-systems"), and we should rather speak about one single World System. In one of his last essays, Frank made arguments about the looming

global economic crisis of 2008 The Great Recession was a period of marked general decline, i.e. a recession, observed in national economies globally that occurred from late 2007 into 2009. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country (see map). At t ...

Selected publications

Books

* (1966) ''The Development of Underdevelopment''.

Monthly Review Press The ''Monthly Review'', established in 1949, is an independent socialist magazine published monthly in New York City. The publication is the longest continuously published socialist magazine in the United States. History Establishment Following ...

.Andre Gunder Frank, "Publications".
Accessed: July 30, 2012. * (1967) ''Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Latin America''. Monthly Review Press. * (1969) ''Latin America: Underdevelopment or Revolution''. Monthly Review Press. * (1971)
Lumpenburguesía : Lumpendesarrollo
'. México : Era. (Spanish) * (1972)
Lumpenbourgeoisie, Lumpendevelopment
'. Monthly Review Press. (tr. Marion Davis Berdecio) * (1975) ''On Capitalist Underdevelopment''. Bombay: Oxford University Press. * (1976) ''Economic Genocide in Chile. Equilibrium on the point of a bayonet''. Nottingham, UK: Spokesman. * (1978) ''World Accumulation, 1492–1789''. Monthly Review Press. * (1978) ''Dependent Accumulation and Underdevelopment''. Monthly Review Press. * (1979) ''Mexican Agriculture 1521-1630: Transformation of the Mode of Production''. Cambridge University Press. * (1980) ''Crisis: In the World Economy''. New York: Holmes & Meier. * (1981)
Crisis: In the Third World
'. New York: Holmes & Meier. * (1981) ''Reflections on the World Economic Crisis''. Monthly Review Press. * (1982) ''Dynamics of Global Crisis'', with S. Amin, G. Arrighi and I. Wallerstein. Monthly Review Press. * (1983) ''The European Challenge''. Nottingham, UK: Spokesman. * (1984) ''Critique and Anti-Critique''. New York: Praeger. * (1996) ''The World System: Five Hundred Years or Five Thousand?'' with Barry K. Gills, Routledge. * (1998) ''ReOrient: Global Economy in the Asian Age''. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Accessed: July 30, 2012. * (2013) ''ReOrienting the 19th Century: Global Economy in the Continuing Asian Age'', with Robert A. Denemark, Paradigm Publishers.

Journal articles

* (1958) "General Productivity in Soviet Agriculture and Industry," '' Journal of Political Economy'' * (1958) "Goal Ambiguity and Conflicting Standards: An approach to the study of organization," '' Human Organization'' * (1977) "Long Live Transideological Enterprise: the socialist economies in the capitalist international division of labor," '' Review: A Journal of the Fernand Braudel Center'' * (1989) "Ten Theses on Social Movements," with M. Fuentes, '' World Development'' * (1990) "Theoretical Introduction to Five Thousand Years of World System History," ''Review: A Journal of the Fernand Braudel Center'' * (1992) "Third World War: A Political Economy of the Gulf War and New World Order," '' Third World Quarterly'' 13(2). * (1994) "Is Real World Socialism Possible?," '' Democracy & Nature'', Vol.2, No.3, pp. 152–175

Book chapters

* (1990) "Civil Democracy, Social Movements in World History," with M. Fuentes. In Amin et al., ''Transforming the Revolution''. * (1990) "Revolution in Eastern Europe: Lessons for democratic socialist movements (and socialists)." In Tabb, ed., ''Future of Socialism''. * (1992) "The Underdevelopment of Development," with M.F. Frank. In Savoie, D.J. and I. Brecher, eds., ''Equity and Efficiency in Economic Development.'' Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. * (2001) "The Global Economy, AD 1400-1800: Comparisons and Relations." In Suneja, V., ed., ''Understanding Business: Markets. A Multidimensional Approach to the Market Economy.'' London: Routledge.

References

Notes

External links

Andre Gunder Frank
website * David Landes; Andre Gunder Frank
Economic History Debate
on C-SPAN2 (Northeastern University World History Center, 1998-12-02) * Theotonio dos Santos

, '' Monthly Review'', May 2005.
Andre Gunder Frank
''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'', May 25, 2005
Andre Gunder Frank (1929-2005)

* Jeff Sommers

''Social Justice'', Vol.32, No.2 (2005).
Andre Gunder Frank Audio Collection
at the International Institute of Social History {{DEFAULTSORT:Frank, Andre Gunder 1929 births 2005 deaths Academics of the University of East Anglia Deaths from cancer in Luxembourg Dependency theorists Economic historians German economists German male writers German sociologists Imperialism studies Marxian economists Marxist theorists Marxist writers Latin Americanists Swarthmore College alumni University of Amsterdam faculty University of Chicago alumni University of Chile faculty World historians World system scholars Writers about globalization