9 Z$ d6 _+ a+ m) x9 G冯克现任香港大学教授,是不多的几个获准可以利用中国官方历史档案的学者之一。" F) T0 {4 r: s$ w* L. j- c5 O% y2 ]
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塞缪尔·约翰逊奖是一个面对世界各国学者的非小说类英文作品的文学奖项,奖金为两万英镑。 8 a! M8 _$ g. m+ G7 u: M5 Q F* C . ]( I7 |( |$ F j1 n0 Z. T" O0 A; w* X8 G. K5 i, P' e 8 c- W2 ]( i' v$ O2 E0 E冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。 ! r7 p0 x( S' o9 Q+ [ - c6 A$ t- x9 e3 n0 z: y9 XMao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize; P, R! w8 d* d; ?! [: D
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A book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. 0 ~2 s$ F/ ?1 v v& o9 M; Q# P( v0 e) G) y4 k4 g
Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. - K; u. G* O T1 b+ R ' S O$ N7 u6 a+ f2 f2 MChair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly"." v3 x0 ^; m- h: j ~
% g, L6 K3 [! K s, |" nHe added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century".* X7 ?: {) `" i- }! Q: N# p2 ?+ u
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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. # }+ H# E) B# L3 M - M+ e% b' p0 q" AThe 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. 3 R$ V9 d/ I, _8 \ r4 m0 Y9 A 4 Y( [. T) _1 k0 `* ^+ mThis 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.& k0 ~1 J% C& _6 w! g. |, V
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They each received £1,000. ! ~: T7 S2 S6 a& A5 }+ l0 h6 h" B5 O) C4 }# c( v
The prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.