" y! P; P1 R/ V/ } - }( x/ B: s0 O7 [5 T$ Q冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。 ) u& x% b; L$ o o- i: @ 8 \- J2 j3 z2 d( v, z9 ]Mao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize ! n& B3 S& t2 c, x/ U " r: i. z" A( Y* i6 N! SA book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.* d) {" V1 a6 x
4 D) {1 M l% N5 u+ FMao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. 1 ~2 d# [. Z, l& t( E5 a. t4 x |0 I6 F+ A% V' F7 e, r
Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly". 3 j8 ]5 m$ _; c( O - O/ `8 N K: X* |- A& Y) y& THe added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". 0 B% ?: L5 r5 w* {5 R$ N' L8 q7 A0 H; E, ?4 s( g. o
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.& Z/ J& a4 C( U' i3 }2 C. w
: @1 s/ k+ A6 I2 _+ dThe 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 J$ B+ d/ G+ n, h
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This 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.; y5 _2 M! x9 O/ h; o: P% U0 v; K; m
! R( I; e' n% L3 L, S! aThey each received £1,000. : [) @; g) T$ f4 ?) ^/ H7 N1 V2 _! @9 `" d5 V) S; @9 e% }
The prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.
