/ F! q: [ ]1 ^冯克现任香港大学教授，是不多的几个获准可以利用中国官方历史档案的学者之一。 # S7 Z _; v4 I x9 h/ V/ ^! Y4 y. v( B6 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。5 B3 ^! t* R1 V- i1 `& j) P
; U( H& M3 r* D" a$ v : i3 m! p- j6 p" L 2 Q- E K1 R- 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。: u4 Q, F6 B' c
) I/ B6 {% F' J+ QMao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize 8 S- H5 q$ S, G& v) { 2 W1 v# z( I1 j; O0 ~+ D3 T3 VA book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.& G$ \( U/ w; ?$ v! p
: ~1 x+ o2 Y' t" j6 A# u+ KMao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award.0 T8 }) E" U3 g" y$ e( j
& ?. l& ]( l; f7 d DChair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly".: b/ K1 |9 D4 q2 e1 }: U
5 w7 r! R3 k9 PHe added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century".- B; C$ Q9 \* N% `2 Q7 S, G
2 }: {, K( `, jMao'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. * w6 N/ r1 i; D7 ^' D; t( x, M7 a" l' |% T, e: V0 J+ j
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.4 K4 p& h; }$ v% l
8 E( C0 S8 M6 o G; jThis 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.( [2 ~' c9 N9 g$ a
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They each received £1,000. " w" A5 c% I+ Z. p S) V7 e, c9 l& g4 B& A! V% T) m+ s
The prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.
