% J3 U8 {7 l' {" U7 s7 _, I: g# d - }+ G* i. U9 D$ ] & W# k) v, k" f' \3 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。 & ~6 f, R- k. |+ w7 N, r4 g& P( C8 |6 W1 `% e
Mao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize3 k- b8 m2 {# O7 B8 B' C6 W' F$ k, e
) ?* T A( e, QA book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. ' _' L8 Y- C* O$ @& E; x; {4 B L: i" d( z6 q4 V9 }2 g
Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award.# V3 x5 u1 K G; Z& z
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Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly". : a, ^9 k3 L% ]! r5 n8 A2 A8 y+ A' {) m# ^
He added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". " Z& e# h, S, m5 [" U6 i- f" U/ } N) T
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.8 t9 c% z, ^& C) [) j2 }
3 b6 D: s% O' p& u( ?% u5 m! S6 EThe 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. 8 T9 n9 C: Q- F4 s: N0 Z: v+ w( i4 }' K- x6 T! f
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.. T; `9 [! _0 W `
8 M7 {/ E, G! ?) V' WThey each received £1,000.; O' Z# _) E4 W
/ {- a% n# q+ o7 |' jThe prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.
