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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。 4 z$ b3 T, l( i5 U8 j" p4 a' V& H" s8 d [& A& H
Mao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize ( k" V/ D& y+ ], L. X$ C( R3 `7 f7 I+ T5 S( L
A book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.4 ]8 o: a- ` r/ {$ f R7 I
7 t6 K- s8 [4 f; IMao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. 0 j. R' j( Y! g- n1 y5 O' {+ Q5 W
Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly".0 u4 y( i( V1 e' S; T: K; W
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He added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century".4 W u: I8 U# j. Q4 ?
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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. " w6 T5 m" v& p* X+ c# c) e 6 x: p# `/ Y8 ~# 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. * J' x0 e0 A) l2 W3 j4 w5 I( J- r7 N _
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.+ r' K# ^3 P" `! S' @+ M
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They each received £1,000.1 V6 [# L; }, n
: j: I& M3 t9 i G4 wThe prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.