( e, g. s' U- y" P2 X * b) U' y; ?5 ^1 H7 F/ V& T L冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。 E# e `8 x# X& c+ |
9 P h a+ C8 w2 e; ^0 UMao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize: W3 [5 e- O, S @1 a
' j, b; v6 i$ ^; K6 LA book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. & q% B8 h' \# G: V4 h+ T+ P$ v) Y, [) W4 @ Z
Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. / ]/ J& r9 q4 X* R# g. p& M9 G8 I0 D1 A& a- s
Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly".3 g0 U/ _( f, a9 @* A8 s5 Q
8 E% Y5 w7 [8 \8 {9 A3 ~He added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century".. l- [# f9 J3 X# D/ F: M
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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. 2 @# n) K( H A7 v$ D3 X6 a5 d5 W5 w% \9 l; K8 @ r
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.! n) W8 p* ?/ ]6 s# W' {
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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./ A! y+ o2 w. d! E7 ?
5 W9 E6 x, e- C8 ~7 T5 l' u( RThey each received £1,000. M7 U: n e* D( X$ T
' z3 l- k3 {& S- ^/ V( \The prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.
