Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-dtkg6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-12T08:47:53.262Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Personal Reflections on the 1982 Special Anthropometric Issue of Social Science History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Stanley L. Engerman
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Looking back at the more than 20 years that have gone by since the 1982 special issue of Social Science History, it is interesting to observe how important the study of anthropometric data has been in contributing to economic history and related disciplines.While there had been numerous earlier comments by contemporary observers as well as by scholars about heights and their implications as seen in JamesTanner's marvelous study, A History of the Study of Human Growth (1981), the systematic work that was reflected in the 1982 volume was then only about six or seven years old in the United States. It represented the early output of a study directed by Robert Fogel, primarily through the Development of the American Economy (DAE) project of the National Bureau of Economic Research.There had been a few previous publications including my own piece in Local Population Studies (Engerman 1976). My first use of the height-by-age data was in response to a dinnerparty conversation in 1974 with two ofmy colleagues in the Rochester history department:Herbert Gutman and Christopher Lasch.

Type
Articles
Information
Social Science History , Volume 28 , Issue 2: Special Issue: Recent Research In Anthropometric History , Summer 2004 , pp. 345 - 349
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 2004 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Eltis, D. (1982) “Nutritional trends in Africa and the Americas: Heights of Africans, 1819–1839.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 12: 453–75.Google Scholar
Engerman, S. (1976) “The height of slaves in the United States.” Local Population Studies 16: 45–49.Google Scholar
Floud, R., and Harris, B. (1997) “Health, height, and welfare: Britain, 1700–1980,” in Steckel, R. H. and Floud, R. (eds.) Health and Welfare during Industrialization. Chicago: University of Chicago Press: 91–126.Google Scholar
Floud, R., and Wachter, K. W. (1982) “Poverty and physical stature: Evidence on the standard of living of London boys, 1770–1870.” Social Science History 6: 422–52.Google Scholar
Floud, R., Wachter, K., and Gregory, A. (1990) Height, Health, and History: Nutritional Status in the United Kingdom, 1750–1980. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Fogel, R. W., and Engerman, S. L. (1974) Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Negro Slavery. New York: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Fogel, R. W., Engerman, S. L., and Trussell, J. (1982) “Exploring the uses of data on height: The analysis of long-term trends in nutrition, welfare, and labor productivity.” Social Science History 6: 401–21.Google Scholar
Fogel, R. W., Engerman, S. L., Floud, R., Friedman, G., Margo, R. A., Sokoloff, K., Steckel, R. H., Trussell, T. J., Villaflor, G., and Wachter, K. W. (1983) “Secular changes in American and British stature and nutrition.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 14: 445–81.Google Scholar
Fogel, R. W., Engerman, S. L., Trussell, J., Floud, R., Pope, C. L., and Wimmer, L. T. (1978) “The economics of mortality in North America, 1650–1910: A description of a research project.” Historical Methods 11: 75–108.Google Scholar
Friedman, G. C. (1982) “The height of slaves in Trinidad.” Social Science History 6: 482–515.Google Scholar
Higman, B. W. (1979) “Growth in Afro-Caribbean slave populations.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 50: 373–86.Google Scholar
John, A. M. (1988) The Plantation Slaves of Trinidad, 1783–1816: A Mathematical and Demographic Enquiry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Margo, R. A., and Steckel, R. H. (1982) “The height of American slaves: New evidence on slave nutrition and health.” Social Science History 6: 516–38.Google Scholar
Sokoloff, K. L., and Villaflor, G. C. (1982) “The early achievement of modern stature in America.” Social Science History 6: 453–82.Google Scholar
Steckel, R. H., and Rose, J. C. (2002) The Backbone of History: Health and Nutrition in the Western Hemisphere. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tanner, J. M. (1981) A History of the Study of Human Growth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tanner, J. M. (1982) “The potential of auxological data for monitoring economic and social well-being.” Social Science History 6: 571–81.Google Scholar
Trussell, J., and Steckel, R. H. (1978) “The age of slaves at menarche and their first birth.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 8: 477–505.Google Scholar
Villaflor, G. C., and Sokoloff, K. L. (1982) “Migration in colonial America: Evidence from the militia muster rolls.” Social Science History 6: 539–70.Google Scholar