* B, I8 e3 Q& `, n) V ' C5 P( X) h K2 v4 G6 q1 ?# X: V' |$ \4 \( @# u
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 J3 Y7 o1 \9 F5 x# }# i 2 w% a% h4 d8 U% [9 h0 C3 \" j, NMao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize% n9 H# L. R7 J
! h. \% e- w' L' o% y% rA book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. 8 E7 @* `6 k* P" [- `( R) k0 g: s g, N. F- {$ h$ d' |
Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award.7 }" e& a4 g0 Y" y7 N, d. H' x! N" U
$ } x1 B# Q+ E2 \: P5 tChair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly". " i$ B/ ?) w* J7 v( q 5 ^, \: M# h- O8 P- o% {! OHe added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". . C7 v: D4 n. S; x' U) Y* v) X a # @2 N* ?4 N1 }" B/ Y, h* fMao'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. - l% p/ N6 X% s0 |( a- j1 d* s7 g4 Y9 U7 v- N
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. " r0 b" m6 c& ?) d. h6 a& w7 u {( r & X$ x$ J d! e" SThis 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.0 l$ N' S: {* d
% c- s$ g8 w2 o( QThey each received £1,000., o3 x, o& P+ f, d/ g; G
) d# `: |2 E1 q+ X# \0 W5 ^
The prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.
: V' |$ \4 \( @# u