The text is closely confined to the colonial period; but the mode of presentation is extraordinary indeed to those accustomed to the prosaic methods of town and village historians. Mr. Hudson has tried to transport his readers and himself back two hundred years or more, as in a vision. In imagination we sit before the humble firesides of the first settlers; hear and join in their gossip, superstitions, and communings, social and religious; inspect their farm lands and homestends, and mark well and remember their boundaries and their family histories. At the same moment we are supposed to be living in the present, and viewing these days through the customary haze of retrospect. It is asking a good deal of any one to fancy himself in two centuries at the same time, but Mr. Hudson's humor is insistent on this point, and he keeps up the illusion, which is, unfortunately. no illusion whatever, and then finds himself on the safe road of steady and progressive narrative.

Concord's photographic history begins in the last third of the eighteenth century and, in this new collection of "then and now" photographs, there is an abundance of the earliest images that capture the old town and its townspeople. Modern images chosen for their resemblances or comparisons illustrate the originally rural community's transformation into a modern suburb and evoke thoughts of history's ever-turning progression. Many of the older images in Then & Now: Concord have been given to the authors especially for this publication. Many are part of the Concord Free Public Library's Special Collection. Most of the modern photographs have been made by photographers Claiborne Dawes and Alice Moulton. Their images show such compelling comparisons as fathers and sons, old houses renovated or replaced with other structures, and the famous old authors with recent famous new ones. Then & Now: Concord will bring murmurs of reminiscence to residents and expressions of interest and curiosity to visitors seeking depth to their understanding of this important New England town.