' q) y k4 x$ F7 _5 O9 k5 P. U' p u. g" j8 W % O6 C- O* G0 k1 h* |) C冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。 ! A& G/ b* G+ `/ ^" |& O9 Z" f: C0 @1 r. l; K+ B) \ k2 F0 N/ C
Mao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize( e. t% r: V" m/ A5 \- }
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A book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. 1 m& v/ q, l, ]4 R6 x ; y) Y( G7 j; J( rMao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. & H# C+ Y( ]9 ^8 R; Q7 S7 j4 Q4 J! h5 s# k* S5 `! \& R2 G
Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly".8 w$ R: p7 g! ^
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He added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century".; t2 {$ K" w i
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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.6 F- w* f: }# o4 h% o% S
$ ^5 k( u; k# eThe 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.; u0 ?# k9 W% `- K: [
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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. 4 F. m" [/ r8 O5 ~# w _. _& @: V4 R9 V. l# C
They each received £1,000.$ `' o; F& U' e6 O" Z* k6 e
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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.
