6 ~( J& h, w6 zMao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize # _0 v N# [. s7 b$ w D- B: U- }4 E& n4 j* h$ V' z8 v$ a3 y+ S3 X8 e
A book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. : `' z( [/ L! M& I" i7 [2 h8 `
Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award.: u h' X- k" C: m
9 H3 M0 j' O2 j1 Y! nChair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly".( F! P; k" y" b6 k; w1 S
' n: K, c5 t, `/ I& d9 cHe added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". $ B% }) n& h& \2 W! |3 Q2 ` M: E( F
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.% S, X/ `" [/ H# u' L! e" X; o+ ^3 @5 P5 q
# C0 F# p, Z% G# o& [& C. Q8 }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. . s0 D w2 y9 s& r3 M, w- o2 K( @' l h. C& E Q6 b
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. + w9 H7 Q9 p9 b2 \- Y( `5 x T9 _6 ~0 B
They each received £1,000.% c F. B/ ?7 G7 g( c
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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.