5 E! x* H3 w, O& `* D# W! E 3 R9 u" t; U0 ~0 D$ X- f) i" a! x3 Y" D6 U8 L: C3 X* E* S/ R
冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。 7 ^" x9 R E5 q2 ^# Z1 c8 c! S1 R( D& F5 V1 P8 L: s) n: I1 Q
Mao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize & |4 I2 g5 t% T2 B( ?! q ]7 k% c( x3 p% n
A book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.0 l" n6 ]4 b4 E# P5 w) c
3 q( Z3 W( s. |0 l. j7 r) [Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. . H' Q5 g7 s) s7 q 6 b. t: P; d% s. F# J/ X* NChair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly".8 X# k( ]- {7 @0 L) c7 Q! A) v
6 @% R" ]6 ?* w% T1 a7 \& V4 f
He added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". $ [6 G9 K1 `9 K, F+ k1 L) U5 X# b I( |! _/ y
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.# F- F, P& l) \* N4 d
8 u8 ?& ?6 V3 g* T3 Q9 S3 ?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., N/ U; k( ~/ X3 M8 b% T3 g
) g2 n! ^8 t4 E' `5 cThis 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.3 m9 @7 M3 Z- m1 j. T4 h& N' c
% A3 @* x) {5 s/ V- b. Z' ^
They each received £1,000. ( y) j- [9 F$ Y6 R% |5 g$ _1 F' X, b* B( \7 U
The prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.
6 U8 L: C3 X* E* S/ R