The Hidden Cost of Economic Development: The Biological Standard of Living in Antebellum Pennsylvania (review)

In recent years studies of "the body" have broadened the range of sources employed by social and cultural historians. Simon Newman and Walter Johnson, for example, recently focused on physical characteristics to rebuild the lived experience of underrepresented historical actors such as Philadelphia's poor or the South's enslaved African Americans. Some economic historians have targeted "the body" as well, but with different questions in mind. Econometric studies of physical characteristics are not merely following these new cultural lines of inquiry; they are also showing how this methodology can shed new light on hoary topics such as the impact of industrial development or the extent of market integration in early America. Timothy Cuff provides just such a case in his impressively researched book, The Hidden Cost of Economic Development: The Biological Standard of Living in Antebellum Pennsylvania. Although narrowly focused in its approach, Cuff's work is an important contribution to our understanding of the accelerated pace of economic growth in nineteenth-century America, labeled by some as the "market revolution."

Cuff sets up the problem within the context of a rich literature that explores the material traces of economic change. If we can assess "progress" in terms of height and other demographic factors, then Cuff posits an important question: how did the proximity of industrial activity affect the lives of antebellum Pennsylvanians? His rich review of the field of anthropometrics sets up his methodology well, and his spatial portrait of Pennsylvania's economy is the best brief demographic treatment since Anne Dykstra's 1988 dissertation. Mainstream historians might find Cuff's formulaic presentation of the literature and his case study approach a bit off-putting, and his prose does little to soften the social science edge to The Hidden Cost of Economic Development. But by the time he posits the argument that "the remoteness from markets provided some net nutritional advantages to the self-sufficient families of Pennsylvania" (p. 99), both the context and significance of this question are clearly situated.

As Cuff marshals an array of evidence drawn from Civil War veterans in Pennsylvania to hammer away at the problem, some interesting trends emerge. He finds, for example, that stature was higher in areas with large swine populations and lower in areas with navigable water routes. The key for Cuff is the "net nutritional effect" of each area, in which he weighs the relative impact of disease, diet, and type of work on stature. More specifically, he highlights the abundant calories of the isolated countryside versus the disease and lesser diets found in locales integrated into Pennsylvania's urban areas. The important point of comparison here is physical height, which Cuff uses to gauge both the quality and length of life. Some might quibble with the size and scope of the evidence used to measure "net nutritional effect" of an entire state because it favors western Pennsylvania and is drawn from soldiers who might not be considered representative of their place of origin. It should be noted for skeptics, however, that the study's data is reproduced in full, along with other measures of economic and material status. Cuff's creativity and thoroughness with this material, moreover, supports his conclusion that "the onset of modern economic growth generated 'hidden' negative externalities that had a substantial impact on human growth" (p. 217).

This is no book for the casual reader, but economic and social historians alike should take heed of The Hidden Cost of Economic Development. It is a well-crafted and convincing anthropometric study of a key region in America's industrial history. With that said, Cuff's careful reading of his data may muffle the possibility of a wider dialogue with scholars beyond economic historians. Is shorter stature an acceptable trade-off for the higher income levels or the less measurable benefits such as the cultural variety or...