: H( n+ a. T% S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。 ) f# u" W' M) r! o5 }1 }9 I" z4 L4 I9 h
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冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。4 I: i3 ^8 N' U2 k
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Mao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize 1 E$ x: K! j% R& [; [# O& o3 K3 ^ . |2 S% n. ` qA book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.% f8 [& @. t+ W4 Z4 f, B8 |) I1 J0 ~
: k1 M* D7 R5 z% _' l* `$ QMao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award.) Q: z1 t* f* [, O) C6 {
/ h/ d, B& [; B% b: W( D6 K/ f& D7 cChair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly". * Q0 `3 Z3 m: ] J' v: u8 z0 R/ I+ m+ r7 A, H
He added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". H/ |! X3 L9 e( H2 c" ~0 p7 m
7 @, h, A9 S2 d5 I! M* ?1 Z, }+ gMao'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. , f6 L* {1 o2 ^. ^- n$ N5 d( q# i' y9 s* f9 C; N/ _
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.* x5 [1 E' z4 a) s" d& g
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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. / W9 d# J* j' D' D$ Y* a) L* B0 L( Y5 K( \9 \8 u
They each received £1,000., P1 j: t' Z# \4 [. h
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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.
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