Amigos y amigas de HaD:
Lamentamos tener que informar que el pasado sábado,
23 de abril de 2005, ha muerto André Gunder Frank.
Su relevante participación en el III Congreso
Internacional Historia a Debate, en precarias
condiciones de salud, ha sido su testamento
historiográfico.
Gracias, querido André, en nombre de todos los que
te conocimos en Compostela los días 14-18 de julio
de 2004, disfrutamos de tus intervenciones, sufrimos
con tu dolor y sus consecuencias, admiramos tu
entusiasmo en tales circunstancias.
Contribuiremos André a que no se pierda su
aportación personal a la historia y las ciencias
sociales, desde un punto de vista siempre
comprometido, creativo e innovador.
Nuestras condolencias a tu familia, y colegas más
cercanos.
Que Clio te guarde en su gloria.
Carlos Barros
Coordinador de Historia a Debate
cbarros@wanadoo.es
www.cbarros.com
www.h-debate.com
++++
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 l ist 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,
J. B. "Jack" Owens, Ph.D.
Professor of History & Guggenheim Fellow
Idaho State University
owenjack@isu.edu