8 R; k. K+ |7 Q0 y: _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。6 _" {2 w; R) p& t
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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。* n. G1 Z( y ~! P* U- v. K
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冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。% m' x; I0 C w: f
& a% O9 @- y. L) m2 x8 Q) eMao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize0 C0 c% p. C0 W7 W6 ^/ B6 U
; L# f \0 |, F" W2 pA book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. - F( W% h5 G& A7 n! l + s% _& ]+ C" }: }. G; yMao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. , Y8 ]$ T5 R S2 o) e. i& n, S3 L1 n5 e
Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly"., r3 D* q0 \9 m# y" F) U$ E. n
/ T, E' ~" P- I* ?He added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". . a: @ i+ |- z( A: J+ A - x+ |, B8 [1 X- B9 N$ M/ B3 Z6 rMao'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. - b% t; e% j/ g/ k2 ^: O8 W- F) @( A9 g1 G, }
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.; P. X+ {" {; t/ Q# _8 h
& B! _" E; T AThis 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. % m3 p7 i3 a) `( E, w& T4 `# s2 ~- f" J! x$ c7 J; W# ~
They each received £1,000. * c3 U" w7 j7 X) ^ : ]$ M1 V& s5 yThe 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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