Size Matters: How Height Affects the Health, Happiness, and Success of Boys—and the Men They Become

by Stephen S. Hall

An award-winning journalist tackles the hot topic of male body image and shows how physical size during childhood affects our psychology, social status, relationships, and income as adults. With a mix of fresh research, incisive reportage, and bracing candor, Size Matters traces the surprising history of society’s bias against shortness and reveals how short people can and do thrive in spite of this insidious bigotry. Drawing on his own childhood experiences (he was shorter than 99 percent of boys his age), Stephen Hall explains the evolution of the growth chart, the biology of childhood aggression, and the wrenching phenomenon of bullying. He explores the factors that determine why one child’s small stature may lead to anguish while another short child develops an emotional resilience that will enrich his later life. Weaving together recent findings from the fields of animal behavior, psychology, and evolutionary biology, Hall assesses the role of physical size in mating success and argues that the alpha male may not be king of the mountain after all. Hall also pinpoints the social forces that create and cash in on our anxieties about size, from bulked-up superhero action figures to pharmaceutical companies selling growth hormone to increase a child’s height -- at a cost of up to $40,000 a year. He introduces us to families who have agonized over whether to make that huge investment. He explains new research showing that a person’s height as a teenager has lifelong psychological consequences. He even tracks down kids he bullied in elementary school and kids who bullied him in high school to show that these childhood encounters have lasting effects on our adult lives. Along the way, Hall builds a persuasive case against societal attitudes that make size (or any difference) matter and argues forcefully that being short has psychological, social, and biological advantages. Size Matters will raise the consciousness -- and the spirits -- of any short male and anyone who cares about him.

Genres: Nonfiction, Sociology, Health

405 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

For nearly three decades, Stephen S. Hall has written about the intersection of science and society in books, magazine articles, and essays. He is the author, most recently, of Wisdom: From Philosophy to Neuroscience (2010), which grew out of a 2007 cover article in The New York Times Magazine.

His previous books include Size Matters: How Height Affects the Health, Happiness, and Success of Boys—and the Men They Become (2006), Merchants of Immortality: Chasing the Dream of Human Life Extension (2003), A Commotion in the Blood: Life, Death, and the Immune System (1997), Mapping the Next Millennium: How Computer-Driven Cartography Is Revolutionizing the Face of Science (1992), and Invisible Frontiers: The Race to Synthesize a Human Gene (1987). Most titles were acknowledged as a “Notable Book of the Year” by the New York Times Book Review.

Hall has received numerous awards, including the “Science in Society Award” in 2004 for book writing from the National Association of Science Writers for Merchants of Immortality, which was also a finalist for a Los Angeles Times Book Award, and the William B. Coley Award in 1998 from the Cancer Research Institute for A Commotion in the Blood. His work has also been widely anthologized, including in Best American Science Writing (2000, 2001, 2008, 2009), A Literary Companion to Science (1990), and The Beholder’s Eye (2005).

Between 1997 and 2000, Hall served as an editor of the New York Times Magazine as well as a Contributing Writer, and has published numerous cover stories for the Magazine. In addition to the New York Times, his journalism has appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, National Geographic, New York, Science, The New Yorker, Technology Review, Scientific American, Discover, Smithsonian, and many other national publications. His essays and criticism have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Orion, and the Hastings Center Report.

In addition to writing, Hall teaches science journalism and explanatory journalism at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, and also conducts writing workshops for scientists-in-training at New York University’s Carter Institute of Journalism. His many public appearances include a keynote address at the Keystone Symposium, grand rounds at university medical centers, lectures at the Hastings Center, and readings that have been featured on “Book TV.”

Hall graduated as an honors student in English literature from Beloit College in 1973, and lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife and two children.

Reviews

[Juliann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Could have been shorter...

[Betsy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was disappointed with this book. It was scientifically sound, but I felt mislead by the jacket description. I learned a lot about the history of height, however I really wanted to know more about using growth hormone treatments. The jacket said I would hear from families who had struggled with this decision, and to be honest I felt the one chapter on using growth hormone treatment was not adequate.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

An often intriguing, ultimately inconclusive diatribe on the consequences of shortness--written by a researcher with an obvious personal investment in the topic and huge chip on his comparatively puny shoulder

[Elke]

ohmygod- it's like this book is totally written for the 12 year old boy in me and the part of me that totally obsesse about height and size.

[Mckinley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Physical and mental growth is covered; bullying, adolescence, muscles and body image. I couldn't help asking myself if the author's life was really this framed by height.