. u5 }: X6 P' t0 ~7 [5 o6 n冯克现任香港大学教授,是不多的几个获准可以利用中国官方历史档案的学者之一。 ) {$ b+ s% ^% s/ P3 R Z ( W7 a& B# g5 {! x5 x: L8 H# H% [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。 \( e8 A, |9 d3 W, T5 N3 J
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, O+ i, W/ l0 f9 j& M 1 t- ]; Z+ l9 ~, G5 I" ]冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。 ! k+ h! K. u6 n$ s2 y+ c 9 [/ e7 z# U- K& |# a hMao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize ; ?; X# {( M7 K( I4 s! n- c( D' {# I! v' M G3 ]( Q. [) k% p
A book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.% V9 X2 p9 T- M5 u) i) _
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Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award.0 O8 w$ H7 M8 t3 B' ^( S9 G
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Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly". - q# ]0 J! N$ r/ R3 ^: I3 S+ N/ A% p- N7 K. H& A
He added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century".7 J W) I# T9 v( N6 e
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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.7 V; ? u0 a$ b7 v+ P5 N3 K
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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.& Z" a' O# ~$ J2 S( u) x
/ P: \! m* s3 R) ?- z! VThis 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. " s2 }# V, L5 ?' j, C: _ 5 Y# X' A+ J" B5 B Z4 wThey each received £1,000. 5 [' D6 l6 ?0 @" i+ h5 V( E% c 3 }* w* j3 i% [' [9 D5 |The prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.