/ Z" _' H1 u/ {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。& t( s7 e8 K' ~" E5 T; o- F. ?* V
; k8 V7 U' @4 d" x2 e 3 V% {# X# a1 `1 g% R# B$ X % K( V( a5 A, Z) f冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。 5 U# W3 @# q* b+ g3 R& i' R ~( m7 A2 J# S; s! Q
Mao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize& G! h" Z& {. f! ^7 _
* @. {" h- F7 H& Y8 [/ lA book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. 1 y: s9 D* _! r0 F9 @5 b% f: ~7 D4 j. i% u2 P
Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award.9 s7 r/ S2 Q) m8 O4 c
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Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly". ) O l4 N; c1 S+ ~& a8 ?3 E. a ^5 E' N7 { \% ~2 ]) W2 e
He added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". ; w+ ^' q2 u/ S. j ~: Y. d L7 }2 y2 |0 z9 l# k6 ]2 B) e( B$ L
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.# R6 W# I1 z' d' z
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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.1 G0 p' l H) o/ V$ c
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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. ! o; ]* W' ~' i5 o6 e6 Z6 @1 M$ _5 T2 [
They each received £1,000.+ K% O$ M; Q" T4 J$ t% J H6 X
* F K+ q7 j6 FThe prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.
