* b5 R! B; D5 ]* a5 `" y: m+ N3 c! C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 _( z) U) z7 j5 ~. `* W1 l4 u 0 I5 o, h7 R) f+ l( L: d. j$ b3 {% E2 t) S % M/ m5 \& z9 d! Q/ |. s9 E/ r
冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。$ b) c+ v0 M, s% u
& ~" F/ Z" O" C. C- pMao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize / N9 N$ o2 b1 E ! @! ~( w8 Z, v2 LA book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.3 W# Z2 ~. s2 N
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Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. ' M) F/ P! f- v0 J4 I) R K e) \. q
Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly". ! b' R2 L+ I( K( h( }; W% }0 { % a: ]# w/ {+ @0 s+ sHe added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". : E5 S5 ~* l% e8 v2 Z Q. F- ^! n) l2 W! G+ m" V, o( Y. B7 i
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. 3 J0 ]3 U/ O* Z _3 f, c V$ Y, u- W2 Z# hThe 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. * e; S# k, |6 y5 n% O5 F8 W4 z! ?4 l3 G# u3 w% `. P9 ~
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. " H. B% j1 ]' a$ V5 {+ m$ d; ?! l% U( V- P. U& C
They each received £1,000. . k, @5 k/ W# I6 h u+ k1 ~* U u: [3 s8 A) a7 Z' q2 e% S6 E7 r2 h
The prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.
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