Klaus Schuster brings together conventional indicators and the well-known anthropometric biological measures to assess living standards in Bavaria during the nineteenth century. The anthropometric historian claims that heights are a good proxy for diet and net nutritional status and consequently are a good measure for the biological standard of living. In the form of several empirical studies, the author provides useful information on trends in heights, infant mortality, health and longevity. He explores not only the determinants of human stature, but also the relationship between heights and life expectancy. He compares conscription lists in Bavaria 1813–1842, with the data for the same individuals available by death register. Those contain occupation and death certificates of the conscripts. As a central issue the book addresses the link between health, longevity, socioeconomic status, and human productivity and tests human stature as proxy for these factors.

A significant part (chapter 2 and 3) of the book describes the demographic situation, social life, and economic environment in the rural and urban districts of Wasserburg, Tölz, Miesbach, Reichenhall, and Munich. Schuster presents plausible evidence that the spatial differences can be explained by typical local characteristics. For example, in the Reichenhall district the salt refinery was an important economic factor with around 30 percent of the conscripts' parents being engaged in the industry (p. 54). It is noteworthy that extended benefits such as wages-in-kind were a high share of the total income of the employees in the salt refinery, so that real income was almost independent of price levels (p. 62). Consequently, conscripts from families who were occupied in salt refining were on average 1.1 cm taller than recruits from families engaged in other handicraft (pp. 172–78). Obviously human stature is reflected by many features of the working-class life and more generally by how well a population can cope with its environment. Schuster's height sample consists of 14,451 conscripts between 19 and 23 years, which allows him to estimate final stature. During the period in question, a minimum height requirement of 155.6 cm was imposed. The author employed the standard scheme of occupational skill classification into upper, middle, and lower class in order to give biological welfare trend estimates for various socio-economic groups. Regression analysis reveals that significant differences in height by social groups had been prevalent.

The author points out that height is closely related to access to calories, in particular during the formative years. The same line of reasoning is endorsed by the fact that food producer such as butchers and millers, who had direct access to food, were on average 0.7 cm taller than the other groups (p. 98, Table 4.2).

In the fourth part of his book, Schuster describes the determinants shaping the historical evolution of living standards. For instance, the height of the conscripts was affected by environmental circumstances such as the social and educational level of their parents. The difference between low and high income groups was nearly 2 cm. Inequality in stature between low and high income was greatest in urban Munich. It increased in Bavaria over time. In both points he confirms earlier work by Baten Joerg (Nutrition and Economic Development in Bavaria, 1730–1880. Stuttgart: 1999). Moreover, income inequality was associated with smaller average physical stature (p. 112). The evidence in the sample supports the finding that social status is usually an important determinant of height, supporting the view that better educated parents are able to take better care of their children.

Schuster also discusses infant mortality, fertility, and illegitimacy and argues that in particular the height disadvantage of the illegitimately born children was enormous. Across all occupational groups the height difference between illegitimately and legitimately born conscripts was about 0.8 cm (p. 114, Table 4.9).

If conscripts grew up in the lower class and could not improve their social position during their lifetimes, they had a middle-age disadvantage of about 3.6 years and were 2.1 cm smaller than those from groups with sheltered childhoods who subsequently attained upper-class social positions. By the use of logistic regression the author found that the risk of ending up in the lower class is smaller with every additional centimeter of height. The probability of belonging to the lower social class was 2.62 higher if previous family background was worse (pp. 130–33, tables 4.15 and 4.16).

In order to address the relevance of social environment in a more sophisticated way, Schuster estimates multivariate regression models that explain height as a function of different diseases, such as mental disorder or asthenia (pp. 161–63, Table 4.18). Nutritional status is also affected by the epidemiological environment, insofar as diseases eat up many nutrients, and therefore the analysis of diseases patterns can give valuable insights into the health experience of different segments of society. In short, this study shows that the social status of the parents, epidemiological environment, and illegitimacy had deleterious effects on biological well-being.

Without any doubt, reading this book on Munich and Bavarian history is recommended for everyone who reads German and has an interest in biological living standards, as well as for everyone who wants to learn about statistical anthropometric approaches. Anthropometric history, with its distinctive theory and methodology, has been presented in this book in a skillful way. But also the complementary history of Bavaria can be considered a noticeable achievement. This book is therefore an important effort to retrace the anthropometrical history and is furthermore an objective effort to use micro-level information to erect a conceptual framework for understanding the history of the standard of living. Last but not least, it summarizes the current state of knowledge on the Bavarian history of the nineteenth century.