; x) m5 P+ w) I1 X7 c ]4 s8 G2 KA book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.* G' M3 n- c+ {! ~- d# a3 p
& f% i; I. C$ |8 h. IMao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. $ Z2 U; q+ Y2 m / a/ v# H0 L# E* u0 E$ s6 q+ IChair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly". ( w* n6 ?1 n$ G- Y/ p. U8 z" ]8 m% q/ Y) t. ^. s4 e9 ]
He added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century".. a7 Q4 m, e$ B: q
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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.7 E, ~1 J: ^1 D+ O: M1 v
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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. 3 W* l1 N* A4 b2 v) T' n/ S; t ' k& h* d6 `: m( O: k) 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. 8 E/ C- v( L8 T: t, Y" [0 w3 s, b- s& P5 E3 D) W- ~9 D% w% M
They each received £1,000. 6 R4 O2 z4 q0 C* A0 _6 k* S2 @8 }, _/ Q0 T! q1 X
The prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.
