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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。 . [" P7 m' q J3 D5 b; u7 Q " a* C" f" U* \8 D' RMao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize+ C2 F8 x; v5 F/ P. P
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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.4 D+ L' M- f6 |5 v1 Q8 s3 w% d
6 q) z3 J% N$ ^% E$ X0 k+ o2 S1 pMao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. / B; B' d. j' T6 w4 z: s, F3 v b& ]1 T+ r" Z4 I Z3 M$ k
Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly".8 a) i6 Y/ T. [4 W1 E
# k0 B3 _) k" I) D# JHe added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century".! ^1 X: I+ w0 P
0 Z9 e5 N, Z3 x6 n7 LMao'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. 8 v( Q. G! h* z. R8 [, U \9 W; P% Z! P5 m7 O% a: [
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. 6 i& l: w( D/ ^. n6 f# Q; G + S0 b$ ]* B( Z0 Y( bThis 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. 5 V I) _* S6 W 0 x/ ]5 `- z6 B' aThey each received £1,000.1 H- e0 U$ o$ ~2 |
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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.