Peter Andreas Munch papers, 1855-1985

Records pertaining to the Norwegian-American interests of a sociologist who was born at Nes, Hedmark, and who received his early education in Norway. After graduate study at the Universities of Oslo, Oxford, Halle-Wittenberg and Chicago he received his first Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Oslo. He came to live in the United States in 1948, starting as a Research Associate at the University of Wisconsin. He taught at St. Olaf College, 1949-1951, at the University of North Dakota, 1951-1957, and at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, 1957-1977. 

He was also a lecturer and visiting professor at several other American and Scandinavian Universities, and served on the Editorial Board of the Norwegian-American Historical Association, 1961-1984. In 1939 he wad been part of a Norwegian Scientific Expedition to Tristan da Cunha, an island in the South Atlantic. The experience led to his becoming an expert on the island about which he published numerous articles and books, the most famous being "Crisis in Utopia" (1971). In 1970 he and his wife, Helene Munch, published "The Strange American Way," which was based on their traditions of the letters of Caja Munch, his grandmother, and on excerpts from the autobiography of the Rev. J. St. Munch, who served parishes in Wiota, Wisconsin, and in the surrounding area, 1855-1859. P.A. Munch's essay, "Social Class and Acculturation," is part of the book. After Munch's retirement from Southern Illinois University in 1977 he was elected a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science for his contributions to Sociology.