How useful is anthropometric history?

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How useful is anthropometric history?

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Komlos, John

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John H. Komlos

Abstract

In his recent presidential address to the American Economic History Association, Paul Hohenberg argued that anthropometric history does not meet his criteria for useful research in the field of economic history. He considers research useful if (a) it "helps shape one of our underlying disciplines"; b) it contributes "to clear—even fresh—thinking about current, policy-related issues or on-going scholarly debates about the historical past"; and c) it "penetrates the fuzzy realm of identity-shaping popular discourse". I argue briefly that only a superficial reading of the literature would lead to the conclusion that anthropometric history has not been useful.

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Paper provided by University of Munich, Department of Economics in its series Discussion Papers in Economics with number 10587.

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Date of creation: 20 Apr 2009
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Handle: RePEc:lmu:muenec:10587

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
N00 - Economic History - - General - - - General
N01 - Economic History - - General - - - Development of the Discipline: Historiographical; Sources and Methods

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

NEP-ALL-2009-05-02 (All new papers)
NEP-HIS-2009-05-02 (Business, Economic & Financial History)
NEP-HPE-2009-05-02 (History & Philosophy of Economics)

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