One of the most useful additions to the tools for the examination of long-term historical change has been the increased use of anthropometric data. These include information on height, health, nutrition, and life expectation. The use of these measures has been important for a wide range of historical questions, largely, but not limited to, those in economic history and including demography, development economics, and medical and nutritional history. Several decades back, when the historical uses of height were first introduced, such measures were only infrequently used. Indeed, such measures were often treated with skepticism or even, at times, with derision. As with most innovations, the acceptance of this approach required detailed empirical analysis and theoretical tests before acceptance was widespread. The major accomplishments of anthropometric history have established it as a central tool of comparative studies, over space as well as time. Among the major contributors to this body of research has been Robert Fogel, whose seminal work in this area covers a period of over two decades. This volume includes some of Fogel's published and unpublished works, indicating the breadth and depth of his studies as well as suggesting directions for further research.

The diverse sources of anthropometric information include data on heights, most frequently drawn from military recruitment records, which exist for numerous countries after the eighteenth century; data on mortality, drawn from statistics of death by age; and data on food supplies, based on records of agricultural production from censuses and other sources. However, some sources are unique to a particular time and place such as the mortality and health records resulting from the U.S. Civil War. This wide range of data permits the analysis of a broad spectrum of questions that can be of interest, particularly since they permit a very broad range of comparisons over time and geographical areas. Fogel's papers in this volume, some jointly authored but most singly authored, are an excellent example of the role anthropometric history has played in dealing with some new but also some traditional, historical problems.