{"product_id":"9781906165314","title":"A Hero for the Atomic Age: Thor Heyerdahl and the Kon-Tiki Expedition","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eNomination for Best Foreign Film at the 2013 Academy Awards\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn English and many other languages the name ‘Kon-Tiki’ has become a byword for adventure and the exotic. The journey of the \u003ci\u003eKon-Tiki\u003c\/i\u003e from Peru to Polynesia in 1947 became one of the founding myths of the postwar world. In the voyage of six Scandinavians and a parrot on a balsa raft across the Pacific Ocean the classic journey of discovery was re-invented for generations to come. Kon-Tiki spoke of heroism, masculinity, free-spirited rebellion against scientific dogmatism, and the promise of an attainable exotic world, while it updated these mythological staples to fit the times. After years of relentless media exploitation of the 101-day raft journey, Heyerdahl emerged as the protagonist in a legend that helped to create a new postwar West.\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eA Hero for the Atomic Age\u003c\/i\u003e tells the story of how Heyerdahl organized an expedition to sail a balsa raft from Callao in Peru to the Tuamotu Islands in French Polynesia, and explains how he turned this physical crossing into an epic narrative that became imbued with a universal appeal. The book also addresses, for the first time, the problematic nature of Heyerdahl’s theory that a white culture-bearing race had initiated all the world’s great civilizations.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Peter Lang Ltd, International Academic Publishers","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47060888813808,"sku":"9781906165314","price":48.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781906165314_p0.jpg?v=1763615971","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781906165314","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}