Twin Cities Then and Now

"Because of their relative stability, streets offer an incomparable framework for looking at the urban past and comparing it to the present," writes Millett in his introduction to Twin Cities Then and Now, which consists of seventy-two historic street scenes matched with new photographs taken from the same locations. Accompanying each scene is an informative essay that examines the often astonishing changes wrought by time and circumstance.

The historic photographs, some published here for the first time, include views taken from as long ago as the 1880s and as recently as the late 1950s. Jerry Mathiason's elegant new black-and-white photographs complement these historic images and provide superb visual comparisons between then and now, while Millett's lively text puts each scene into clear focus. Twin Cities Then and Now also includes four specially prepared maps along with detailed informational graphics that identify hundreds of significant buildings and places visible in the photographs.

Twin Cities Then and Now is an engaging, startling, and at times heartbreaking look at the dramatic march of progress in Minneapolis and St. Paul. For, as Millett also writes in his introduction, "to observe a city over time is to see, for better or worse, the remorseless power of change."