The question asked in this paper is whether modern societies enable the individual to lead a happier life. It was hoped during the Age of the Enlightenment that rationally designed social conditions would lead in the future to greater prosperity, more security and increa- sed happiness for all....

The last few decades witnessed a dramatic change in public opinion towards gay people. This paper studies the hypothesis that the AIDS epidemic was a shock that changed the incentive to "come out" and that the ensuing process of mobilization and endogenous political process led to cultural...

Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- The agro-industrial roots of the US capitalist transition through state capacity building : 1830-1870 -- The end of slavery and southern agricultural class structure -- Farmer organizations : the rise and fall of populism -- State institutional capacity...