Book Reviews

Abstract

Robert A. Margo of Boston University and NBER reviews “The Changing Body: Health, Nutrition, and Human Development in the Western World since 1700” by Roderick Floud, Robert W. Fogel, Bernard Harris and Sok Chul Hong. The EconLit abstract of the reviewed work begins: Presents an introduction to the field of anthropomorphic history and surveys the causes and consequences of changes in health and mortality, diet, and the disease environment in Europe and the United States since 1700. Discusses our changing bodies -- three hundred years of technophysio evolution; investigating the interaction of biological, demographic, and economic variables from fragmentary data; the analysis of long-term trends in nutritional status, mortality, and economic growth; technophysio evolution and human health in England and Wales since 1700; height, health, and mortality in continental Europe, 1700-2100; and the American experience of technophysio evolution. Floud is Provost of Gresham College, London. Fogel is a professor of economics and Charles R. Walgreen Distinguished Service Professor of American Institutions in the Booth School of Business and Director of the Center for Population Economics at the University of Chicago. Harris is Professor of the History of Social Policy at the University of Southampton. Hong is Assistant Professor of Economics at Sogang University. Index.