Reviews the evidence on early-industrial height cycles and shows why the economic transition put downward pressure on the nutritional status of the European and American populations.

Argues that the decline in physical stature of the American population beginning with 1835 was related to the concomitants of the onset of modern economic growth and not entirely to changes in the disease environment.

Examines the height of Georgian convicts and concludes that their height declined beginning with the birth cohorts of 1835. The economic transition brought about a decline in their nutritional status.