. u2 U3 j& n/ l) d( D* }' v) f + L+ _9 v$ y% _2 Z, y5 }冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。 " T$ r: j; ?# G , a: H9 S3 |' s1 Q& OMao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize1 t" E! V3 y$ b- _
4 u) m* k+ D f# @ ^A book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.' b6 |7 I. c- m5 y1 b6 m$ ^
" `/ V9 f0 y' _. H/ V* _. yMao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. ; W p: u( L& R/ `* q * g m: r% u0 E. u8 a: C' @Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly".+ }2 h; Y. r2 U# y9 ?
& K' g1 c* K" z& NHe added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". ' _& x/ ]: s/ C" Z 1 q2 I" m% o3 b U& qMao'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.+ I" K2 R! m5 y* y0 R; l
% N/ S! e$ I d: l! VThe 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 Z$ P3 l" a! y3 Q
& D: q" q7 j( }+ p9 y4 Q' K, ~5 \2 eThis 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+ V/ K9 P/ v6 g$ C4 m. y5 }
, X5 w& U. W" w1 N# RThey each received £1,000. + H/ W; t" {0 }* Y( J5 e( q8 H. |! J6 t* i4 ~; y% O& j. ~4 S$ R
The prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.
