! w* c+ M& w! L' G) D( a- {+ W# w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。( u9 v' N: y: {' Q) @ H
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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。 ; Y; Z. l! ?9 E4 e- ?! L4 `% A
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冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。 ' Q: h- ], [0 [ " c r, {( V4 t5 p4 YMao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize k1 }4 [0 F+ G
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A book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. $ C" X: j8 O% o' M4 f9 I$ D) ~4 P
Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. : I, O3 z% B7 \) f5 X; R & \7 q1 m, q' e' D5 QChair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly".( J7 n0 q( N( ]5 F, l! E5 B
" T. P5 ]# H2 a) v( U$ S$ @He added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". ' k3 d/ i" ]- r# }' ?2 z! I5 A' N- }1 y) R
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. / O; ` L' V$ J8 Q4 Z/ v9 S 6 ]4 G* P1 r. {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. ( M6 F! \ Y" Z d( i. i _8 G. _/ x9 u
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.' f1 X# q! E/ X8 o% D: @) D
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They each received £1,000.. Z ]4 y& j7 _/ k
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The prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.
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