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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。 + H4 c. S8 R; C+ T' _ , d1 b' v3 n' z% r& `# @* gMao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize9 S V% t2 i. m2 |* b( l$ h+ m* L
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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. , s9 r& A; N' ]0 c; v0 H9 {6 |, q" }8 q) {6 W% g) `6 q4 m C
Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award.; }0 w, c8 ~6 P5 l1 e: O3 _
: j- r9 Z9 z$ S6 \$ JChair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly".6 I3 E+ \0 G+ B: }" m
4 S4 g) H7 g' C- y. X8 z9 ^He added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century".+ n! V' i; ?; k8 }2 P2 k
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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.2 k! j, Y" ]- i/ N1 s) U; f
, w+ u `: ^4 y- W/ ]% UThe 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.! o" y, P% o1 d/ ], X& B! C; k
' c* Z6 t W( a* 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.( ]8 l0 {/ u* A3 T# k0 [
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They each received £1,000.. F1 j3 X! ?) z7 D9 p* q6 s }' q* A
( b1 z# ^: O4 ^, ~7 R; EThe 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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