$ q1 T! u* V3 E' D) 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。 c: R4 v$ p; w5 {9 \1 O( D' w$ @( R& k2 c7 M. a
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。 5 T( V% W0 i9 a$ G- I2 n6 v % [6 |7 V! k7 @! a! w' e 5 R6 o( L' `; m6 c; f 6 B* \* s- D& O8 @8 }$ r! [冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。 ! {' G- o7 s% v , }$ R; j* m' `' A* t" ?) UMao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize$ v; j, Y+ n5 h; m7 X
l- S w: O. GA book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. 3 ^8 D! M j% g2 T6 C+ z! Q$ r: V, a6 |. S
Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. , }# O5 U( m& _$ y0 {0 R# w v9 T , U% U# [' S# l- ~4 @" SChair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly". 8 ~7 A( c2 r. p/ r7 @% Q1 c6 [. F) a
He added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". - N, C X0 `1 ^/ B4 Q4 l' g% ~% k+ n, B, N, O
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. * k9 X0 a0 L4 g$ ]) z' |7 S0 x, o0 Q, j8 @! Y
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. - V' {. n8 L& U0 F! N / _3 P1 @8 i! {7 N$ a& p5 `1 o. VThis 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. 6 c9 Q) D0 q$ B/ Q, y+ n4 K. s" ]$ }: h: |
They each received £1,000.6 B! Z9 }& \2 k$ q! F
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The prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.
