5 ?. R1 F% y0 V, h3 c7 y, w; z5 T/ z6 }2 C% A ) d9 t9 v+ k, I1 j$ F
冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。& {* T1 k0 L4 b, i' {4 w; |
8 w2 m1 a( O; d# Y2 A# w4 k& T
Mao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize& w6 B* o* v1 v5 \/ I8 q
9 N5 L2 `8 W" f" N
A book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.7 Y* `1 Q# e8 b5 t6 x. K' i
" U9 p8 T. @/ Z" g
Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award.4 S7 E, u( k0 m0 m* [
+ ^# M ]8 Y5 }. j8 Y4 RChair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly". ) \$ @8 ?! ]/ K5 f' ?/ s1 H3 ]8 e4 x; ]3 ?
He added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century".* f6 q) n, E2 u4 b$ R
( j& Z- C) R/ P+ M; P
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. & j' S7 a& I4 S4 X! I$ }& X8 P5 \5 J h
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.! }+ [0 `8 V! U
. L6 O4 O' E2 o3 V) |
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.' e, o3 d O7 \! V' h
% w' q K& @: f/ V* f6 G9 C
They each received £1,000. ( Q. c7 K) f" z, J* ~3 c7 C2 O " ~) W5 x, x3 X& k" W& @The prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.
) d9 t9 v+ k, I1 j$ F