5 |0 [0 J$ h2 [0 o0 b 3 a/ f! W7 U5 s2 `" P# k L# b 2 R3 u7 d+ V. z0 g. x, A0 y) C冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。 & D2 y7 D( S8 q' o- L4 m/ H! G0 w- ~9 {$ q% f' {
Mao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize $ s( \6 L$ F/ y( X8 W , u: A1 m% _- oA book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. 0 f4 [* M5 E* e- O; o1 ` v* Z7 @9 K B# C
Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award.$ z5 s4 o* F8 j( K3 M) m
% G$ d B: W% g+ a' v) I# gChair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly".+ L% _# E1 T3 n% a
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He added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century".2 E, |$ u7 E" O
6 f# H& D/ r' A+ Y) |+ |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. ' m- s7 d, ~$ G* G1 ^5 C+ e7 x& ~& F: v
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. $ k/ q# ]1 x$ I" G) S# a ; w: \' \& ?# JThis 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.% ~& F1 W) ^$ a, K8 G
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They each received £1,000., o* ]6 N- X" X5 s
7 {% Y3 W# C. E2 IThe prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.