<http://schema.org/description>
"Marking the forty-fifth anniversary of Apollo 11\u2019s moon landing, First Man by James Hansen offers the only authorized glimpse into the life of America\u2019s most famous astronaut, Neil Armstrong\u2014the man whose \u201Cone small step\u201D changed history.\u201CThe Eagle has landed.\u201D When Apollo 11 touched down on the moon\u2019s surface in 1969, the first man on the moon became a legend. In First Man, Hansen explores the life of Neil Armstrong. Based on over fifty hours of interviews with the intensely private Armstrong, who also gave Hansen exclusive access to private documents and family sources, this \u201Cmagnificent panorama of the second half of the American twentieth century\u201D (Publishers Weekly, starred review) is an unparalleled biography of an American icon. Upon his return to earth, Armstrong was honored and celebrated for his monumental achievement. He was also\u2014as James R. Hansen reveals in this fascinating and important biography\u2014misunderstood. Armstrong\u2019s accomplishments as engineer, test pilot, and astronaut have long been a matter of record, but Hansen\u2019s unprecedented access to private documents and unpublished sources and his interviews with more than 125 subjects (including more than fifty hours with Armstrong himself) yield this first in-depth analysis of an elusive American celebrity still renowned the world over.  In a riveting narrative filled with revelations, Hansen vividly recreates Armstrong\u2019s career in flying, from his seventy-eight combat missions as a naval aviator flying over North Korea to his formative transatmospheric flights in the rocket-powered X-15 to his piloting Gemini VIII to the first-ever docking in space. These milestones made it seem, as Armstrong\u2019s mother Viola memorably put it, \u201Cas if from the very moment he was born\u2014farther back still\u2014that our son was somehow destined for the Apollo 11 mission.\u201D For a pilot who cared more about flying to the Moon than he did about walking on it, Hansen asserts, Armstrong\u2019s storied vocation exacted a dear personal toll, paid in kind by his wife and children. For the forty-five years since the Moon landing, rumors have swirled around Armstrong concerning his dreams of space travel, his religious beliefs, and his private life.  In a penetrating exploration of American hero worship, Hansen addresses the complex legacy of the First Man, as an astronaut and as an individual. In First Man, the personal, technological, epic, and iconic blend to form the portrait of a great but reluctant hero who will forever be known as history\u2019s most famous space traveler."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/First-Man/James-R-Hansen/9781476727813>