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.

Abstract: Examines the Physical Stature of The elite students attending the École Polytechnique military academy in the Early Nineteenth century. Concludes that their height was some 7 cm greater than that of average French youth their age.

Examines the Physical Stature of The elite students attending the École Polytechnique military academy in the Early Nineteenth century. Concludes that their height was some 7 cm greater than that of average French youth their age.

Argues that the improvements in nutritional status of the English population in the 1730s was instrumental in the demographic and industrial revolution that started a generation later when those birth cohorts reached adulthood.

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.