This introductory chapter argues for the use of the concept of ‘welfare city’ to understand and explain the development of modern public services and welfare systems. Previous research has hitherto put too much emphasis on the welfare state and on the period after 1945. This book calls for a shift in perspective, from the national level, to the local level, as well as a focus on the decisive period 1850–1940. Urban areas and cites were of paramount importance for the establishment of public services and welfare systems. The analytical framework deployed in this book, therefore, places urban politics in front of national politics and shifts the chronological focus to an earlier period in time. This theme and its adjacent argument are explored through studies of the Nordic countries. The chapters contain various examples on welfare and public services that includes infrastructure and housing projects, but also health care, education, outdoor life and entertainment. Together, the contributing authors claims that it is necessary to analyse local politics in order to explain the discursive changes that paved the way for a wave of investments in public services and social welfare in the period.