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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。 2 h( f4 L' S/ B4 B; M' ?& o! F% T( B8 D6 b7 S) Z/ J. w% b: L1 d
Mao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize . O n* m) V, A* }* ?2 X. n+ ?; ^! [. f: T6 K: e0 _
A book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.( M! O6 k! C' S8 ~1 c( k' ]
' u4 F7 t1 D. v6 p; B& gMao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award.5 R; m3 f' J6 v8 o. ^
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Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly".; O! `: |, ~$ C. k
2 U, b: [! ?8 ~8 z* EHe added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century"., ]: I( ~2 k1 S; ?, D4 Y5 I0 t! w
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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.6 Q( D G; ]! O
$ r% A" X" o! s- D' `4 h4 [3 wThe 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. " u: ^& o/ C% u E s" H( y) u/ i+ U / A0 J7 t2 I3 y8 v/ PThis 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. 5 P- Q& s6 F2 l8 v - J% ~, Q0 X; |" Q+ ?0 GThey each received £1,000. ! F5 `, x+ A3 }3 V( w/ R! ^- [7 P" G$ h3 Z
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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