8 U7 }/ o* T. E5 H7 ^* k* H1 m- F, u* R! H) N 2 n a2 ?* W% @冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。 # d. u! d& \5 Q& n0 Z9 Q" H5 R1 X; p& T4 }
Mao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize! {7 W& R$ R$ V+ @0 e% Z% \
7 O4 ?6 d# b; p9 l- jA book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. ; B0 n4 c( f/ Z- i t+ A: ~# d/ E2 h n% j/ E
Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. . }+ h6 C! O. ?+ L$ y8 s/ c $ k" i# A U3 A8 r* Q8 L1 zChair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly". / a" R( ]0 t* k6 s; L ! h6 V: o& b! j7 UHe added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". # b3 D( c7 \5 {+ l & A% o! v3 ]7 d" {( C5 PMao'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 v7 a& r% s- m) a
* G A8 h4 T2 S$ ZThe 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. # q% j4 O( N. M 5 N [$ w, _0 ~7 I$ o1 [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.. Q$ m, {; ]7 s1 R# Q
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They each received £1,000.6 N4 Y: i3 p+ ~4 m7 q# G/ e' B
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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.