This book looks at the influence of middle-class and middle-class-based social reform movements concerned with welfare state-building in the U.S. and in Germany from 1880 to 1940. Middle-class social reform is conceived of as a mix of particular mentalities and activities: the author considers the interaction with poverty as elementary for the constitution of the middle class as a distinct social group. He analyzes social reform as a powerful instrument used by the middle classes to stabilize their urban political influence. The welfare city, rather than the welfare state, was the ambition of the middle class. Henceforth, conflict between the Aestate' and the cities became a driving force in welfare state building. The different positions of the middle classes and of the cities in the U.S. and in Germany explain the very different paths taken by these two countries in developing the welfare state. German text.