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Here’s the context:

“In England’s residential nurseries in the 1960s, there was a reasonable number of caregivers, and the children were materially well provided for. Their IQs, though lower than those of children in families, were well within the average range, up in the 90s,” Zeanah told me. “More recently, the caregiver-child ratio in Greek orphanages was not as good, nor were they as materially well equipped.

Usually "more recently" implies a comparison between two recent events but here we are talking about something that happened more than half a century ago so I wonder if "more recently" just means "recently here. Thanks!

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    more recently = later than the 1960s (in a context where there's some meaningful connection between all three of the 1960s, that later time, and now / time of utterance. Without the word more, there would be no implied reference to the 1960s, so it couldn't mean later than the 1960s - it would have to mean a little while ago / shortly before now.
    – FumbleFingers
    Jun 26, 2020 at 13:15
  • @FumbleFingers - thank you for the comment! For the benefit of the community it would be nice to convert it into an answer!
    – CowperKettle
    Jan 2, 2021 at 9:57
  • The meaning of "recently" can vary considerably based on context. Talking about your social life it might mean "last weekend" but to a historian it might mean in the last 100 years.
    – Stuart F
    Mar 18, 2021 at 12:52
  • @StuartF That's true of historians but it's even more true of geologists and cosmologists. Recent geological time is measured in millions of years and recent cosmological time in billions of years.
    – BoldBen
    Jun 25, 2021 at 3:15

2 Answers 2

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Answer from comment by Fumblefingers:

more recently = later than the 1960s (in a context where there's some meaningful connection between all three of the 1960s, that later time, and now / time of utterance. Without the word more, there would be no implied reference to the 1960s, so it couldn't mean later than the 1960s - it would have to mean a little while ago / shortly before now.

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  • Answers in ELU should be accompanied by linked supporting authoritative references (Fumblefingers isn't quite there yet). Comments lifted wholesale and submitted as answers should be given as Community wikis, so that votes will show how the answer is regarded but not reward plagiarism.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Jun 23, 2021 at 15:47
  • 1
    @EdwinAshworth - I changed it to community wiki, thanks.
    – Martin
    Jun 24, 2021 at 6:51
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More recently means more recent than the 1960s.

If it just said recently, there wouldn't be any reference to the 1960s.

But since the 1960s had already passed when this was originally published, everything is more recent than the 1960s, so it really wouldn't make a difference either way.

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