As human beings, we have an innate disposition to care about our well-being. We all care about staying alive, as well as about avoiding disease, physical pain, bodily harm, disability and assaults on our dignity. Adequate nourishment, water, shelter, security, satisfying work, autonomy, relationships with others and self-esteem are essential to human life and functioning. This illuminating study compares well-being across civic status, economic standing and gender during Amsterdam’s Golden Age. Utilising a multidisciplinary perspective, the author identifies the mechanisms linking people’s positions in these three systems of inequality to the wellness of their being, showing how the socioeconomic and gender hierarchies affectedtheir well-being across the lifespan.
