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冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。, ?0 V. |/ d: ]: @* W
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Mao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize ) |% q, ~3 A" O+ {) D% I c/ O4 f$ {# S& U& \& Z6 L9 }6 n' l' Q
A book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. # A) g1 k n) _3 x- P5 u8 Q' z/ ^* q. J3 Y Z2 \
Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award.: C$ @7 `$ Q+ ~) Z# L+ A |
5 u1 y5 e' Q1 A: T2 O* TChair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly".( }' |! M: I+ B
d& J0 T* G6 B8 A; y+ W5 xHe added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century".0 }" I7 Z# Q4 u4 a; k' O
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Mao's Great Famine reveals new details of the period from 1958-1962, providing fresh historical perspectives on Mao's campaign to increase industrial production during which tens of millions starved to death. 5 t2 [5 q" _( R9 n& _0 o& I- e! G
The academic - currently chair of professor of humanities at the University of Hong Kong - was one of a small number of historians to be given access into the Chinese archives.! @ w6 n( @' y& c7 p, u
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This year's runners-up were Andrew Graham Dixon's Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane, Maya Jasanoff's Liberty's Exiles, Matt Ridley's The Rational Optimist, Jonathan Steinberg's Bismarck: A Life, and John Stubbs' Reprobates.9 x7 {- J) y9 `' Y/ @
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They each received £1,000./ |8 N# X' P4 m& O
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The prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.
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