) g, a7 U$ J% B0 |0 Q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。 . ~" e% y8 S. Y* C 4 y3 N) P) N+ Y- U& Y I* P9 t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。 $ J. X( m8 i# d) d ; e: T3 H$ i. ` 1 V6 j1 `3 D( ?' J* U $ r1 x0 }2 W( Y! x! x冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。 0 e' t( f$ V. J2 {* I0 n9 j. ~5 t4 G- k/ c
Mao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize" P1 ^! f' P2 b2 q% e, q; f4 m
: Z9 d0 V" @# j) |A book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.2 A D ]" t5 S- w. U; J
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Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. * Z! }7 ~0 V( _! e" ?0 B+ C$ b6 T& G- F# F6 h
Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly".( ^# r. v& g( `0 ]6 R% E5 M
0 B+ ]: ~! @8 [9 LHe added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century".* L( Z+ o* v& C- S- i0 I8 n% n- ~
; b# f. U. U( }8 Q* `8 oMao'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. : p" t8 ^7 N, p6 B$ L( d; T3 `2 v+ n : X6 D% Q- u; K% u- u1 YThe 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.5 U" L* Q6 I& L! S/ u2 x
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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. ' e/ q4 P( ]5 C) M, c ^4 i$ C8 j% k6 c! S7 Y/ \, O" @- a1 C
They each received £1,000. : ]& H+ K+ U' v3 F4 f 5 u" o3 {' p0 f, K# O+ h2 ]The prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.
