Gudmund Stang (1933-2002)

In January 2002, the Nordic countries lost one of their pioneering Latin Americanists, Gudmund Stang, a brilliant man with a strong personality. His parents were Norwegian, but he was born in Buenos Aires in 1933. His father, Einar, was a fine artist whose drawings captured images of the River Plate countryside. Gudmund received an Anglo-Argentine education. He remained a member of the Anglican Church until his death. In 1951 he returned to Norway to carry out his military service. Then he began his studies, with a focus on history, at the University of Oslo until his graduation in 1962. He was especially interested in the theory and methods of history and the social sciences and wrote his thesis on British historiography. At the same time he gathered an impressive knowledge and understanding of the philosophy, literature, art, and music of the Nordic countries, Britain, and Latin America. As assistant professor of history at the University of Minnesota (1967-69), Latin America became his favorite field of studies.

In 1972 he joined the faculty of the University of Trondhjem as a lecturer; he taught social history of Norway, Britain, and Latin America. He made a concerted effort to include a proportionate number of readings on Latin America. After 1970 Nordic collaboration in the field of Latin American studies increased and was institutionalized; first a committee was set up, followed by an association in 1973—the Scandinavian Association for Research on Latin America (NOSALF). Gudmund played an important role in this process. At the same time, he became a member of newly founded Asociación de Historiadores Latinoamericanistas Europeos (AHILA). In this way, particularly, Mörner and Stang became close collaborators and friends. To a considerable extent his scholarly production is related to the agenda of these two networks.

Gudmund's article on Scandinavian emigration to Latin America from 1800 to 1940 was one of the best contributions at the 1975 AHILA conference on emigration in Cologne. The comparative study was of great value not only in the Scandinavian context but also in the broader European context. Stang focused on a particular professional group, namely, European engineers; his short article in a "Festscrift" in 1997 addresses this topic, but a longer version can be found in a Dragvoll paper, which he wrote in 1989.

At the 1980 AHILA meeting in Warsaw, which focused on the images held of Latin America in Europe, Stang presented another item of considerable comparative value, based on Norwegian educational texts. A year later, AHILA met in Stockholm to discuss European capital, entrepreneurs, and workers in Latin America. This was very much in line with Stang's main interests. His paper on the personnel strategy of British firms in Latin America from 1880 to 1930 was, indeed, a pathbreaking contribution. During the 1980s he continued to work on different aspects of Latin American industrialization.

Although Stang's lectures and writings covered the evolution of the Atlantic world from Columbus onwards, he never lost sight of contemporary events. With Stang's rather complex background, the 1982 British-Argentine war was a real tragedy and he attacked the Norwegian government for its pro-British stand. Two informative publications, which he wrote in 1983 and 1989, were notably objective and are helpful to explain the Argentine collapse today. From his days in student politics on the conservative side, Gudmund, with his great wit, enjoyed debate and did not shun drastic formulations. In the age of romantic and loose revolutionary leftist movements, linked to "Che" and others, he was formidable as an adversary. He was also a charming, nonorthodox lecturer and teacher who took good care of his students. At the University of Minnesota, he was remembered as a fine colleague, good teacher, and an excellent poker player. He stayed in touch with his colleagues there for many years after he returned to Norway. In the university milieu of Dragvoll, he was a well-known and active figure. Over 30 years Stang did all he...