* U; B6 g4 Z- t. M% J& y9 L 0 I% L0 i i6 d1 R1 [# ^% e $ u& A7 V. }$ n$ K P冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。. z$ N& [+ I* l' w5 v P4 G9 o
: ]5 j5 ^4 u! [Mao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize: y" o% F+ x9 f3 P2 W1 c
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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 T% G( R7 y, p8 f# k& g& d . v. ^5 g. n* G( {" e+ V3 R7 pMao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. + i9 E, `0 J0 D# _* G7 l0 \ \& N# \- k+ c3 wChair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly".6 L# `; Y; S: b
* x: F0 P% Q$ d3 U' p! NHe added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century"./ h1 g& O( W* O; @
$ ^' O$ A- G$ T3 b5 b+ hMao'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. - h. q7 l) g @- D, d! L6 E : p- T/ n7 {% I7 jThe 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.9 F- |" i" n$ D. M& d- y) X; 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. 3 P, p1 f( Q) i, r0 U- Y1 R0 |4 D2 H, I1 X8 X
They each received £1,000./ F+ K! ^5 Z; X/ W$ L
' x, U0 T |' i- ^, gThe prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.
