1 L4 E7 d/ w0 c* ~& `3 m0 d! c. [冯克现任香港大学教授，是不多的几个获准可以利用中国官方历史档案的学者之一。! j1 X7 m' C0 F- g/ e7 y
5 U. B9 {5 A4 N5 u/ E5 Q, Q塞缪尔·约翰逊奖是一个面对世界各国学者的非小说类英文作品的文学奖项，奖金为两万英镑。5 s' \: @# }% [* ?9 F( l
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6 y1 K) _+ L: G9 u / ]/ q' e4 E* y5 g5 e: n6 D. n冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。, b4 i, R+ J; J' L0 v
8 @. x1 U9 I, t& rMao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize( `% e) l0 L& h
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A book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. * T0 A- H2 E1 u5 i # C' F6 u) a% C a; c, R; N3 VMao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. . E$ }) U) U, K+ N3 e. U, u4 e- A
Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly".& T7 @# Y8 n$ C* [
; @$ d& r0 F- R6 @3 cHe added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". 2 n. B) Z& d) k, }# z 6 f9 |) I% Q6 ^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. / h( q7 d! S4 u7 _ 1 L& @) x3 S: X1 A3 L& _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." m, Q! H6 L" V+ Y$ T
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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. 3 [7 S, B3 {- Q2 G+ o" H , ~. B9 Q" K2 ^* K( F8 n- `They each received £1,000. 8 H2 j8 y( i) f) \* _- [% ?5 n1 J' c, n Q5 b
The prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.
