ABSTRACT
When Alva and Gunnar were reunited, she had decided to try to place their marriage on a new basis of equality. For a short time their relationship improved, although their work was increasingly separate. Gunnar finished An American Dilemma, which stimulated far-reaching public discussion. Alva wrote newspaper articles documenting the Nazis’ persecution of Jews and urging Sweden and other democracies to rescue Jews and welcome refugees. The looming problems of the postwar world cried out for social scientists and planners who could envision long-range policies for global rebuilding and a durable peace. After years of study, Gunnar believed that he was indispensable to reframing Sweden’s economic and foreign policy. Alva sought not only to meet the humanitarian needs of civilians in a world destroyed, but also to secure women’s wartime gains and to plan for postwar reforms to improve the situation of women and children. As they engaged with these global concerns, Alva was thrust by the deaths of her parents and continuing problems in her family into a period of intense self-examination.
