. z, H) O% \/ l- P( \7 r \1 f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。 % y" b. Q. t' y* L& I) ~! B4 ~8 c$ _7 U' ? G& M
$ P' G5 ^: y9 I( r$ e3 {- ~ 1 T1 c) c$ w! w) }" _冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。. T4 r8 O# g; X6 D6 K8 k
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Mao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize ( I. q4 s; k: D9 ^) l- L( X' t+ O8 R) F
A book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.+ z; b1 l! B' P& l( G
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Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. ( J1 t6 U: A a Y% i( F5 V# B 4 B+ R* S2 l* |2 E! }* [, h2 _! EChair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly". : A! @; K% F; R L" B- h 6 s" o/ L# T4 z e3 N/ h% a2 rHe added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". - K# H' C( z/ `3 }4 H ) D9 \7 T" l; wMao'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. # Z* {/ y' l, [5 P0 L % m8 f2 G' R" o9 dThe 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/ h& d2 q a5 c
+ B& G* Z1 ~/ Z. XThis 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.0 \& z5 \9 E* O( w) U/ U
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They each received £1,000. 5 m: R/ g6 S7 w6 l + M6 ^; g% F. C6 hThe prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.
