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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。. D4 g' y4 T& @" B8 d) u" F% N
& s* s+ x' u: i5 S' fMao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize' p ]8 A1 ~- \0 o# q; ^8 \
& [* R) c2 U. ^0 B6 MA book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. 0 |8 j0 g$ q C* B% w, E7 }. I+ v. K) ]) P % _: L0 E% n0 _. m( M9 zMao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. ) y% L# w6 ]3 \9 ~, x( _% \. }, C. G; ]; S8 N2 I
Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly".( [4 I a* O2 r' \
! V6 }9 K( b8 _4 c8 w# JHe added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". 8 i2 {/ e0 c, e+ w7 u; r 9 l# O ^" u: z6 i U1 eMao'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. : L( }0 @% p7 s1 n& f" `7 R ( c$ O# B- p& bThe 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. % x1 F! i9 d/ k + U5 h8 @8 o/ eThis 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. % b/ m. {$ R# t" Y$ b/ c# n7 }& x$ u
They each received £1,000. + M9 ]5 u! \6 ]0 w* c2 `- D8 F2 Q8 S! H2 |* R& s' z6 i. k7 u$ @
The prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.
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