0 Z0 Q. t, e% l+ B/ E7 B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。6 Q5 C0 f8 t; j+ x# k# u, m8 a
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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。8 W0 K; l8 Z2 K+ r, G' h
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7 C% q* K7 @ u3 F/ j/ `; | ; m# Y/ y* w, n; p7 H- ?$ z冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。 / O$ r( O H$ R6 W" K: _- U: C$ m9 B. z: |+ l
Mao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize' }" [" N& o( ]% b+ ] ^6 z6 b0 H; x
3 p& R1 c( L3 Z4 c8 QA book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.% P- ]' K% {/ P
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Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award.6 l9 Z- g: {% n+ f" X' N& |
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Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly". $ ^! o8 K# I# `2 P" }8 K+ ~9 n0 u9 T . n5 ^1 z1 Z$ Z* K! w3 _, uHe added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". ' W7 b+ y' L: ]2 `2 e3 T6 p) r* y
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.! d* z- P7 r2 D7 }4 @4 [) Q4 j
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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.5 b' K) Z# w2 W* H
. j9 S7 {5 q& Y3 T/ SThis 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. - H# Y7 ]/ s6 I( e# ]9 P K# O, I3 f& L9 h. C/ S& U5 j7 _
They each received £1,000.( D5 v% y1 `7 d S$ K
& \7 q( v! m$ {The prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.
