In a book on everyday life in the early republic, (the name of wnich escapes me), the author makes the point that average height, as recorded in the muster rolls of Revolutionary War militia, was 5' 9" in 1776-1778, exactly the same as in WWII! The American diet was so advanced and healthy at that point, that we reached this taller average height almost 150 years before the europeans!

E.