Stature, Living Conditions, and Economic Development: Essays in Anthropometric History.

The use of auxological data by historians has exploded during the last twenty years, and for good reason. Many historical populations have left behind abundant sources of information about the heights and ages of their citizens, providing scholars with information suitable for the systematic study of variation in nutritional status across social strata within societies, in societies over time, or across societies. Given the relative paucity of alternative indexes of health and material well-being, it is easy to understand why these data have proved to be so attractive to those who are curious about the conditions of life in the past.

Late in the 1970s Robert Fogel mobilized a fine set of scholars to take up the task of collecting, on a massive scale, and analyzing, height-by-age data and other evidence about health in order to improve our understanding of the historical record of nutrition and health, and explore the sources of mortality decline in the Americas and western Europe. Since that time, Fogel, Floud, Wachter, Pope, Steckel, and other members of that team have not only made substantial contributions to knowledge in this area, but also spawned …