, F, g4 i, K7 v+ k & Q, y- y9 y* ~- `3 N! W/ Z( Y冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。7 T% j/ C! q6 s. O6 W! T7 Z
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Mao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize 1 E0 \' s2 b) P, c9 U( ]5 }, D4 G2 ]7 \! [" {0 G- s/ A
A book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.+ ^- y* L: x. H; ^( X
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Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. 2 p' A0 G# m( s- b8 x4 `# v' D$ |9 y- P! E
Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly".* \, g( B o. K6 O" m
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He added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century".) l3 w% p& ]0 x- @
5 P7 } q8 n3 _1 E+ ~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.8 J( U L/ g$ R. x5 _$ G4 C q
: r3 x8 ~* h( T tThe 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. * l0 F8 D) `, V# \& h5 v( s! {) Y7 \ ~& Y, F# w
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. i) r* s* p1 A/ q+ _0 t" G* F/ }! _5 d# F) N/ t# W
They each received £1,000. \9 ^1 Q% V1 {, z% q
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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.
