Perhaps not such a dismal science after all.
I have leftist friends who insist that things are getting worse and have been getting worse steadily for many decades. They emphasise how many people use free food shelves, how Food Stamps are being tightened up, etc. As a child in the '50's my grandmother who raised me would always tell me that poverty was a constant threat, and my reaction was to think, "this is the richest country in the history of the world, and I'm not worried about poverty." Professor Fogel's book is just what I need to give to my doom and gloom friends for Xmas. He recognizes that, even in America, some malnutrition remains, but he rightly highlights the positive overall trends as evidenced by increased lifespans. Unfortunately, my grandmother (whose attitudes were shaped by the Depression) is no longer with us. But then again, she did make it to 94, which was about half again more than what her parents got.