- f) ^# _7 b. G塞缪尔·约翰逊奖是一个面对世界各国学者的非小说类英文作品的文学奖项，奖金为两万英镑。7 I9 q, L+ p- Z3 C
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" U' _8 e' G1 I( j - B/ ^% C9 a; k: ]冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。 & o" j% i8 L7 [, e# O& @ ; G p- @# ~7 u) I- H$ FMao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize, \3 k1 v0 ^+ m& l
0 F( t: Q' T0 m: O4 ?A book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. 0 O% b6 c7 e! k( Y' ]- k& P3 }( f
Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. 2 Z- X! \# L+ c, y( Z 2 |- {" Q6 q9 }6 r( Y* { O7 e+ iChair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly". 0 F% ?( n; C G1 ?6 o$ w3 P9 a$ l1 \
He added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". . U" @2 j% N4 [- j6 b$ H9 v9 \+ n5 S
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. / S n5 b( n) O4 K, Y h; ?& c% F+ y7 X1 x7 v9 d
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. 4 Z- J. w( N' \% p- ?, n6 n. r; Z& P- O' J' i: Q, N
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.$ ^: |# i6 f) K$ z5 Q
/ a1 O/ K4 B$ ]. @" |$ mThey each received £1,000.1 g# j% a- {4 W/ d
/ R6 t# [/ ^8 W0 M- p( _# N' HThe prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.
