* b2 I4 n6 u" S) o5 U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。/ ?4 z" Y( O2 x: D7 N8 K# p! n- l
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1 @: K* x6 ?9 ~4 y6 R$ T ) H; i; r8 \; z0 v/ I冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。- W; Q- a. T8 U& ]8 g
* K0 S3 L+ ^6 G& i( \7 y2 Z$ P) A, Z6 x- }Mao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize! P+ l, k p" `" k# P
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A book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. : J' Z0 k0 V5 Q( R. Q% j7 f2 q7 C: m, p, A
Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. & Y% \8 c/ E6 ?8 B2 T+ Y" m/ g* [1 n 8 v l9 k+ `6 G- R: y) r# xChair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly". * W9 Z# H$ o8 D- R 6 g0 P( E4 G3 HHe added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century".; z h6 K9 [$ E% Z; S
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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./ A# j: y4 K/ ~. V( ]# t
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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. ! U- \9 q( Z# y6 y5 T $ D6 p% [1 W6 z5 l1 N( yThis 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., f$ x' L2 @( n) Q/ ]4 ~& ^
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They each received £1,000.& V F% z8 F1 g* I- @
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The prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.
