Height, Health and History
Nutritional Status in the United Kingdom, 1750–1980

Height, Health and History provides an invigorating statistical edge to many debates about the history of the human body itself.

Roderick Floud (Author), Kenneth Wachter (Author), Annabel Gregory (Author)

9780521029988, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 November 2006

380 pages
22.8 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm, 0.572 kg

In historical accounts of the circumstances of ordinary people's lives, nutrition has been the great unknown. Nearly impossible to measure or assess directly, it has nonetheless been held responsible for the declining mortality rates of the nineteenth century as well as being a major factor in the gap in living standards, morbidity and mortality between rich and poor. The measurement of height is a means of the direct assessment of nutritional status. This important and innovative study uses a wealth of military and philanthropic data to establish the changing heights of Britons during the period of industrialization, and thus establishes an important dimension to the long-standing controversy about living standards during the Industrial Revolution. Sophisticated quantitative analysis enables the authors to present some striking conclusions about the actual physical status of the British people during a period of profound social and economic upheaval, and Height, Health and History will provide an invigorating statistical edge to many debates about the history of the human body itself.

List of figures
List of tables
Preface
1. Height, nutritional status and the historical record
2. Inference from military height data
3. Inference from samples of military records
4. Long-term trends in nutritional status
5. Regional and occupational differentials in British heights
6. Height, nutritional status and the environment
7. Nutritional status and physical growth in Britain, 1750–1980
8. Conclusions
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural history [HBTB]