9 g) }/ `- Y8 c" |3 r {! |- O* g 8 n9 \. W+ W! X1 h1 G1 m0 {冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。% i. ?; E( i) E. H* ^, @
& {+ G& z3 z' m; F: d) P& {/ OMao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize ; e O' P- i7 N- h. l# p. ^ 3 ], R E8 ^, R7 \A book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.1 s" E- K7 b0 j7 p8 R7 V
2 P3 `0 u% G& r; y$ Q
Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award.. K- P/ ~3 P: j2 {0 Z* Y. s! e
! V7 {& a6 N, B! I
Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly". & H# y' s6 M; i( `' L/ `9 Q/ }9 @# _# K3 l8 V% ?
He added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". : z6 l z% q1 K9 M& Y" W2 _+ g2 Z& r+ Q4 U
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.. u- y' h) S' b3 N' }! s5 x# O8 I
7 L( u% k3 K2 A# p! ]0 X: q3 `! w! o
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. : {) L* S! s% ? 8 q. ~5 n& F5 w" {$ t2 I' e. EThis 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. + {8 B' u- f( W ) v, M1 ]" d/ g+ q' {. n4 @1 HThey each received £1,000. 1 J9 K. _# d0 E8 ?. ?4 c0 j - M: F7 c" a- P" ?; p2 t$ }The prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.
