Örjan Appelqvist is an economic historian specialized in the early post-WWII economies of Sweden and Western Europe and on the intellectual heritage of Gunnar Myrdal. As Associate Professor of the Department of Economic History, University of Stockholm he developed its Courses in International Relations. He was one of the founding members of the Attac-movement in Sweden. Actually based in Paris he is participating in various networks of European heterodox economists favoring social and ecological concerns as basis for a renewal of economic thought.

"The fascinating book from Örjan Appelqvist gives us the opportunity to measure the depth and broad dimensions of Myrdal’s thoughts that went far beyond economic phenomena per se... In a convincing way, Appelqvist succeeds in applying Myrdal’s way of reasoning to the structural issues that European countries face."Nicolas Barbaroux, University of St Etienne, Journal of the History of Economic Thought

• Introduction Part I: Explaining Fundamentals in the Intellectual Development of Gunnar Myrdal 1. The Issue of Valuations in Science - and Economics 2. The Question of Time in Neo-classical Economics 3. The Basic Tendency of Markets: equilibrium or dynamics? 4. The role of the Public Sector in the Economy 5. Out of the War: planning for peace and welfare society Part II: Gunnar Myrdal and the International Economy 6. Forging the International Outlook During the War Bridge-Building and 'Organized Free Trade' 7. In the Economic Commission for Europe and Beyond: the functionalist civil service preparing for the future beyond stalemate 8. Rattling with Issues of Trade Theories and Development: from Columbia to Cairo 9. Modernization and the Internal Impediments to Development: South Asia in focus. 10. Challenge of World Poverty: back to American Creed? 11. Introducing Ecology into Economics: the UN Conference on Human Environment 1972 and beyond. 12. Myrdal, the internationalist disappointed: The urgency and impediments to international cooperation. 13. Values and Shortfalls in Myrdal's Outlook on Internatnional Affairs. Part III: Out of the European Dilemma? Using Myrdal's Ideas in the Post-2008 Landscape 14. The Dynamics of 2008 as Four Interlinked Circles 15. The Ecologic Crisis: the inexorable growth of the pressure on the ecological balance 16. Myrdal's approach as a tool in this new landscape? 17. The Pertinency of the Core Values of Myrdal: rationality, equality and democracy. 18. Transcending Myrdal: debt, credit and new growth paradigms 19. Between Morality and Realism: the ideas of Gunnar Myrdal in the new international political landscape.