Matthew Wilhelm Kapell is an historian and anthropologist, with Master’s Degrees in each discipline, who has a Ph.D. in American Studies. Early in his career he co-authored chapters on the genetics of human growth and the effects of poverty on growth. The majority of this work appeared while he taught anthropology at the University of Michigan–Dearborn. Included among these are essays published mainly in edited European and Indian (Asia) works attacking ideas of genetic factors in determining development of height and body shape.