' ^$ L+ x- d* t$ f* N5 p5 N: f0 E- S. H# t0 L% A& Y9 O0 p
冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。2 t! Y+ {# e0 U: ]6 \& m) _
4 Y7 T: g8 q+ |$ p& cMao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize5 w" K( |& v* p7 e
: U# c" O8 j3 A5 N9 _
A book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. 2 ] R j6 r# ?: M ( ?( ^; l4 {4 _$ ^/ Q. Q, XMao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. 9 q1 B. w2 ?4 O4 {! o& V; G3 e- V! x) J
Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly".0 D7 J. R5 R: d$ V
' F: b0 [ `/ A+ H& I* Y7 D6 C, q: \He added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". , a i& S3 g# ]# h- T9 t, Q# s. B2 s! D& \
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 n5 E3 `( m+ @2 c; D5 E( Z8 q: w) P7 ]- o2 K9 S
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./ a$ S6 X% r7 z0 }
/ m: \1 E% E- ?' Y+ |
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. $ o( t9 Y; }- y7 W) H4 k- I, z8 p
They each received £1,000.6 Q/ F; W: n' w2 u9 H
0 d" U, `' w( ~5 A& o% j1 Z, v5 P
The prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.