This is not about race. We have already been over the fact that race is not a good measure of anything in Great Debates. What I am wondering is if there is good evidence of males being taller, heavier, and possibly stronger in any groups descended from any Caucasian European groups. Common knowledge says that Italians tend to be short and stocky while Germans, Scandinavians, and the Irish tend to be tall and rather large proportionally. I am from the South where most of the Caucasians are of English, Irish, and Scottish extraction. People in the South tend to be rather tall and large on average. I have encountered the same thing when I have traveled to the Midwest where most of the people are of German of Scandinavian heritage. Now that I live in Boston, I find that I am taller and of a different build than most other men. Is there any genetic reason for this? Please note that my father-in-law is 100% Italian and is bigger than I am. I know that there is variation within any group and no group is 100% homogeneous but I am just wondering if there is anything to the stereotype.
“Common knowledge”? Egad. :eek: 
Shall we now proceed to trot out some tall, slender Italians, some short skinny Germans, Scandinavians, Irish, some itty-bitty Southerners?
Anyway…FWIW…
I doubt it. [shrug]
Yes, there definitely are differences in height among different Caucasian populations. The Dutch are now the world’s tallest people, followed by Americans and Scandinavians. Auxologists (those who study human growth) believe that the main reason for these differences is wealth, which usually leads to better nutrition, which can accelerate individual growth.
That said, I’ve noticed that Americans who are of Scandinavian decent appear to be taller than other white Americans, even though they’ve lived here for several generations. But I have no proof of this.
You can read more here:
http://www.oberlin.edu/~alummag/oamcurrent/oam_may99/tall.html
Of course someone is going to come along and say this is all utter garbage, but as far as I know - Caucasians are traditionally divided into 3 main categories, Nordics, Alpines, and Mediterraneans.
Nordics - Tall, blondish people, with mostly blond hair.
Alpines - Short stocky people, with blond to brown hair.
Mediterraneans - short to medium wiry people, with mostly dark hair.
Also there is the so called Dinaric type which is similar to the Mediterranean but very tall. Mainly from Croatia to Albania.
The kicker is these types don’t correspond to neat boundaries - there are Mediterranean strains in Britain and Nordic strains in Spain.
So I would say, very broadly, a primarily Nordic population (the Dutch, “Anglo Saxons”) is going to be taller, but there are many many individual variations.
Of course someone is going to come along and say this is all utter garbage, but as far as I know - Caucasians are traditionally divided into 3 main categories, Nordics, Alpines, and Mediterraneans.
Nordics - Tall, rangy people, with mostly blond hair.
Alpines - Short stocky people, with blond to brown hair.
Mediterraneans - short to medium wiry people, with mostly dark hair.
Also there is the so called Dinaric type which is similar to the Mediterranean but very tall. Mainly from Croatia to Albania.
The kicker is these types don’t correspond to neat boundaries - there are Mediterranean strains in Britain and Nordic strains in Spain.
So I would say, very broadly, a primarily Nordic population (the Dutch, “Anglo Saxons”) is going to be taller, but there are many many individual variations.
I didn’t mean to double post (I just caught a redundancy and tried to edit it out) sorry. 
How about those tall, brown haired people, because when you say mostly, it makes the statement sound as if blond hair is dominant.
FWIW, on nutrition, wealth, size, etc.: Look at Dennis Winter’s “Death’s Men”, about the British in WW I. He gives some interesting demographics about the conscription-age population of Britian as a whole during the war. An amazing thing (to me as a mid 20th Century born American) is the very large number of Brits who were too small to meet the much reduced middle and later war draft standards, and the high proportion who were rejected due to nutrition and similar type health issues. I don’t have it in front of me, so I can’t cite specific numbers, but the gist of it is that a huge proportion of the late Victorian and Edwardian population of what was supposedly the wealthiest empire going were quite undersized and undernourished due to poor distribution of said wealth.
Well, this may not help your argument, but, here goes.
I am about 5’5" and about mumble, size 10-12, mumble. (yeah, like I’m gonna tell YOU how much I weigh). Hanging around my extended family, I am the shortest and thinnest woman there, if you could call me thin or short. The men are all tall and skinny and the women are generally, um, stout. My family is of German descent.
When I am around my husband’s (extended) family, I feel like a giant towering over them, and would easily be seen as the fattest person in the room, again, not that you could call me fat or tall. My husband’s family is Hispanic.