The effort of anthropometric historians to unearth the broad patterns of human biological well-being has led to the examination of nearly forgotten, centuries-old records from dusty archives in practically all the continents of the globe. French historians in the Annales tradition were among the first to adopt methods from physical anthropology and from the biological sciences, but the real expansion of the field dates from the pathbreaking work of Richard Steckel and Robert Fogel, which launched the discipline of anthropometric history on American soil Research has confirmed that physical stature is related to nutritional status and therefore to real family income, and thus to the general standard of living. Historians and development economists will find this line of research useful, as it informs us about the standard of living of members of society for whom data on wages are seldom available—women, children, aristocrats, farmers, and slaves. In addition, this research has shown that the biological standard of living may diverge from conventional indicators of welfare during the early stages of industrialization. Thus, per capita income is an ambiguous measure of welfare during some phases of growth, and it must be supplemented with data from other indicators, such as physical stature. The essays in this volume broaden our knowledge of the human effects of the momentous economic changes of the last two centuries, extending analysis to regions for which such information has been lacking, including Russia, Canada, Indonesia, Italy, and Spain.

Inhalt: Part I: The Americas, Asia and Australia: Mit Beitr�gen von: Stephen L. Morgan; Stephen Nicholas / Robert Gregory / Sue Kimberley; Henk-Jan Brinkman / J.W. Drukker; Ricardo Salvatore / J�rg Baten; Ricardo D. Salvatore; Insong Gill; Richard H. Steckel / Paul W. Sciulli / Jerome C. Rose; Michael R. Haines; Philip R. P. Coelho / Robert A. McGuire; Lee A. Craig / Thomas Weiss; Timothy Cuff; John Komlos; Brian A'Hearn; Barry Bogin / Ryan Keep; Markus Heintel; W. Peter Ward Part II: Europe: Mit Beitr�gen von: Edwin Horlings / Jan-Pieter Smits; Jos� M. Martinez Carri�n / Juan J. Perez Castej�n; Gloria Quiroga Valle; Sebasti�n Coll; Lydia Sapounaki-Dracaki; Bernard Harris; Markus Heintel / Lars G. Sandberg / Richard H. Steckel; Joaquim da Costa Leite; Jesper L. Boldsen / Jes S�gaard; Holle Greil; Sally Horrocks / David Smith; Philip T. Hoffman - Joerg Baten / John Komlos: Conclusion "Die mit umfangreichen Literaturverweisen bereicherten Beitr�ge bieten ueberraschend konkrete Einblicke in die Sozialstruktur der verschiedensten Bev�lkerungsgruppen und ihre Lebensbedingungen." Das Historisch-Politische Buch .

This book explores the biological standard of living diverging from conventional indicators of welfare during the early stages of industrialization. It discusses the human effects of the momentous economic changes, extending analysis to regions, including Russia, Canada, Indonesia, Italy, and Spain.

This is the first full-scale anthropometric history of Imperial Russia (1700-1917). It mobilizes an immense volume of archival material to chart the growth, weight, and other anthropometric indicators of the male and female populations in order to chart how the standard of living in Russia changed over slightly more than two centuries. It draws on a wide range of data--statistics on agricultural production, taxation, prices and wages, nutrition, and demography--to draw conclusions on the dynamics in the standard of living over this long period of time. The economic, social, and political interpretation of these findings make it possible to reconsider the prevailing views in the historiography and to offer a new perspective on Imperial Russia.

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book brings together a range of ideas and theories to arrive at a deeper understanding of inequality in Latin America and its complex realities. To so, it addresses questions such as: What are the origins of inequality in Latin America? How can we create societies that are more equal in terms of income distribution, gender equality and opportunities? How can we remedy the social divide that is making Latin America one of the most unequal regions on earth? What are the roles played by market forces, institutions and ideology in terms of inequality? In this book, a group of global experts gathered by the Institute for the Integration of Latin America and the Caribbean (INTAL), part of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), show readers how various types of inequality, such as economical, educational, racial and gender inequality have been practiced in countries like Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Mexico and many others through the centuries. Presenting new ideas, new evidence, and new methods, the book subsequently analyzes how to move forward with second-generation reforms that lay the foundations for more egalitarian societies. As such, it offers a valuable and insightful guide for development economists, historians and Latin American specialists alike, as well as students, educators, policymakers and all citizens with an interest in development, inequality and the Latin American region.

This Open access book provides a survey of the economic, health, and somatic progress of Baltic countries during the period 1918–2018, framed by the outline of the historical-sociological theory of modern social restorations, as originally conceived by the Austrian-American comparative historian Robert A. Kann. The author reworks Kann's theory to analyse post-communist transformations in the Baltic region. The book argues that the purpose of modern social restorations is to make restoration societies safe against a recurrence of revolution. There were two waves of modern social restorations: post-Napoleonic and post-communist. Most post-Napoleonic restorations were brief, because they failed to economically and socially outperform the pre-revolutionary and post-revolutionary systems. It considers Baltic restorations as laboratory cases of second-wave modern social restorations, because they encompass a triple restoration of the nation-state, capitalism, and democracy. The book assesses the performance success of Baltic restorations by comparing economic and social progress of Baltic countries during the periods of original independence (1918–1940), foreign-imposed state socialism (1940–1990), and restored independence (since 1990). It then elaborates the criteria to assess the ultimate performance success of these restorations by 2040, when restored Baltic states may endure longer than their ancestors in 1918–1940 and the complete foreign occupations era (1940–1990). The author, an expert in historical sociology, uses extensive historical-statistical data in cross-time comparisons to develop his analysis and create future projections. This book is of wide interest to sociologists, social demographers, political scientists, and economists studying the Baltic region. This is an open access book.

Why did Europe experience industrialisation and modern economic growth before China, India or Japan? This is one of the most fundamental questions in Economic History and one that has provoked intense debate. The main concern of this book is to determine when the gap in living standards between the East and the West emerged. The established view, dating back to Adam Smith, is that the gap emerged long before the Industrial Revolution, perhaps thousands of years ago. While this viewhas been called into question - and many of the explanations for it greatly undermined - the issue demands much more empirical research than has yet been undertaken. How did the standard of living in Europe and Asia compare in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries? The present book proposes ananswer by considering evidence of three sorts. The first is economic, focusing on income, food production, wages, and prices. The second is demographic, comparing heights, life expectancy and other demographic indicators. The third combines the economic and demographic by investigating the demographic vulnerability to short-term economic stress.The contributions show the highly complex and diverse pattern of the standard of living in the pre-industrial period. The general picture emerging is not one of a great divergence between East and West, but instead one of considerable similarities. These similarities not only pertain to economic aspects of standard of living but also to demography and the sensitivity to economic fluctuations. In addition to these similarities, there were also pronounced regional differences within the East andwithin the West - regional differences that in many cases were larger than the average differences between Europe and Asia. This clearly highlights the importance of analysing several dimensions of the standard of living, as well as the danger of neglecting regional, social, and household specificdifferences when assessing the level of well-being in the past.