Q. What is the most-watched TV format in history, seen by about 100 million people weekly around the world? A. Wheel of Fortune, a game show. Without putdowns or pandering, the author looks at 260 such shows, concluding that culture has triumphed over technology. For despite our capacity to transmit the same content world-wide, McLuhan's global village has not come to pass. Technology has, however, encouraged already-existing "cultural continents" to coalesce. About one-third of the world's game shows have been licensed or adapted from another country, especially from the United States. Conversely, a single program can cross borders unchanged, such as Sabado Gigante, which appeals to Spanish speakers in 18 countries. The first truly global study of TV entertainment, this book includes interviews with producers, contestants, and licensers. With its tables, illustrations and appendices, the text provides details on content and audiences, as well as explanatory overviews.

New England is the oldest and most influential region of America. Although it has changed much through the centuries, it remains a place that even the Colonials may still recognize. Through a collection of photos, illustrations, history, and stories, this book explores the architectural history of New England and how, although it has changed much through the centuries, it remains a place that even the Colonials might still recognize. The book begins with the influence of climate and geography on the architectural choices and follows with the basics of the well-known New England homes––the cape, the saltbox, the colonial––all of which were created to serve the very specific needs of this corner of America, the people, the land and the climate. We look at the earliest settlers, understanding the challenges they faced, and follow their descendants as they convert and adapt the traditional New England home into something still clearly New England but different, newer and, ultimately, even modern. We watch how the people and houses evolve and how they become what are still clearly identifiable as New England––and all over New England, from Connecticut’s Gold Coast to the rocky shores of Maine. Sprinkled throughout the story of this evolution are sidebars such as A New England State of Mind and I Live Here, etc… where we meet the quintessential New England personalities and characters, who speak through letters, epitaphs, remembrances, books, newspapers, and others, and hear and see in their own words and images what they make or made of this place and life in it. People who buy this book will enjoy a very visual sense of what it’s like to be a New Englander and what it’s like to live in New England––whose houses have been copied and adapted in every state, city and neighborhood of America.

In the tradition of Rizzoli’s Historic Houses of the Hudson Valley and The Houses of McKim, Mead & White, Great Houses of New England features a stunning array of newly photographed houses that range over four centuries and are distinctive examples of the architecture of the region—from the mid-seventeenth-century New England Colonial Judge Corwin House (Witches House) in Salem, MA., and the eighteenth-century Jeremiah Lee Mansion in Marblehead, MA., to the late-nineteenth-century McKim, Mead & White Shingle-Style Isaac Bell House in Newport, R.I. With lavish photography of sumptuously appointed interiors including many rarely seen rooms, wonderfully detailed house exteriors and gardens, and authoritative text by architectural historian Roderic H. Blackburn, Great Houses of New England comprehensively considers the magnificent building styles of the region—including Early New England Colonial, Georgian, Federal, Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, Italianate, Shingle Style, Colonial Revival, and Tudor. Great Houses of New England is a landmark work of enduring interest to homeowners, architects, architecture historians, and all those who love fine architecture and interiors.

"The history of New England -- indeed, the history of the United States -- can be experienced first-hand by visiting the homes and estates of the region's most notable residents. From presidents and war heroes to icons of American literature and the arts, the grace and grandeur of these homes offer a glimpse into the lives of the men and women who shaped our nation. [The author and photographer] breathe life into the history of the region's thirty-six most important, influential, and picturesque homes, from the earliest homesteads of the 1600s through the Gilded Age mansions of the early twentieth century." --P. [4] of cover.

A visual delight for garden aficionados, from the novice gardener to the landscape designer. This should be on every garden lover's bookshelf.

Join Alan Emmet on a tour of gardens that graced New England from just after the American Revolution into the 20th century. A Martha Stewart Decorative Arts Gift Book Choice for 1996.

From colonial farmhouses in the Rhode Island countryside to shingled beach cottages on Martha's Vineyard, this lush tour of some of New England's most inventive and quintessentially American interiors reveals the unique regional style that has come to define our country's idea of home. Color photos.