9 ?4 K4 @; ~$ g7 X; PMao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize 2 {% \* X7 ~, j& M& J9 Z$ [; F$ p( L$ I4 G2 H1 j
A book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. 8 E) y( z; q6 B9 C9 F& d8 ?0 `! N / i* u) f' [" z/ Z6 M% fMao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award.. n% A1 E7 ?0 Y0 {, b
7 U& N4 F2 x9 Z |
Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly". 0 h. H) |! \& W, V, M* ~0 S" O1 S 1 J% R& Y8 E* uHe added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". ( B/ j8 v1 I2 j* L+ X. V8 }, X" }- M2 @% ?/ G
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. c5 Q: B. x% N% @/ T
( W5 c5 V k) g* {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.( v1 y- Q: N V% c5 n0 \( L
p# q! i. [* C q- U. CThis 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.7 R- F- g. Q0 V- H$ l3 o
6 F% E! \# r4 |( Y4 K' Y' U0 x8 gThey each received £1,000.! C4 @! l- [4 |% ]: ?
4 Z* W& g+ v- ?; N$ O8 D( `
The prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.