' W2 o# N O% Z * k; z- A; I; N0 {+ K - B' J: F( k4 w) X- H$ o0 _ `* 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。 Y* c% U" K- {$ W 2 @/ g) O( M+ T$ A' wMao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize - J( x. v8 ^. I 0 v$ i3 ]" {, t' Y! o, xA book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.6 ?3 Y2 W$ P* t" E
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Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. 4 I4 h W2 j3 r$ d1 u % K2 e+ ]* k3 j" bChair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly".7 B- ~( b3 Y! d1 w+ P+ t7 i2 a8 Y' t
' ^) `5 j4 p9 n$ x4 LHe added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". 0 r9 [% p, q9 \5 {- b" v3 y8 f3 f. Q& {. j8 c# K9 T% `8 q) u; L
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 L; Z1 e. E+ ]1 P" _4 ^2 A' @) I/ b' h) |( I% n v
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. 6 w- ]7 J, P) n- e# } % ] q5 K( T- }! Y# o% L% jThis 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.$ R! ?8 q$ a* H6 k
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They each received £1,000. 5 `3 r, u8 b ^+ O: @ a8 ], F6 R0 x' y6 ~( U$ D; s
The prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.