: q: K* ? m9 c7 ? , J, n/ m* F% W ?$ a9 `冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。; _, Y {7 X1 h! N
8 s9 z' h: `) Q. p+ _7 [% k* W
Mao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize ) v% I+ V I" a) R5 D: G$ b. y0 z# T) Z( H) s# Q
A book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.0 h. ^6 P/ c3 ?5 V9 [3 A
2 A3 V' ~3 T+ ]9 m' eMao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award.3 b7 o' y! z# w6 t& s
: ^2 p% n, \5 K+ ?: _) _
Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly".4 X7 l" ]4 t! K5 U) O/ z: a
; o, z! i8 O$ yHe added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". , U% [7 V* }: L0 X0 v4 s- V* y6 A: @6 Z: d8 {+ d. I% j
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.: q& t. `7 g& f m8 Q, Q0 V
0 n. D6 G/ G- s {! n, Z
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.- b! C+ L' v: n, @2 o
& m& b6 A/ A$ {0 }1 oThis 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. & @# ~* ^- g: y # u" ~. o6 k: A7 @2 F+ jThey each received £1,000., w v% c8 _" N4 C% t+ N) ]/ V
/ D0 C$ h+ `5 m& Z9 C
The prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.
