1 i; o! z* d% w* E' u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。 3 z+ R/ U6 N6 P, r+ K - l2 }% C, t( q7 @2 o3 A) M8 J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。 # R. Y2 }5 Y; q5 B' s5 V + \" D" T9 e! e% |) U1 [( E( F4 X) R: z m" {1 u F! L+ L ; p/ G0 l. a5 O9 Q3 w1 f7 d3 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。# Q! s' @$ X' I2 H( m
2 P# O: Q: k3 e, i6 v: |Mao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize * A4 S/ R. }, I, H / p) X6 H1 U0 O# o, s' kA book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. 8 N" ^2 g! w& W. j " u) D: y$ s, y" iMao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. 3 t; u8 I t8 v& C1 T5 q0 [# I4 L( i
Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly".: m$ D" x7 Q& C1 C( m9 e
8 l1 a$ h, l: ]7 }5 x" WHe added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". ; M4 E& K5 k; m, N. a0 }) |% }+ A2 N) g3 d, y) X; Z4 C. Q4 C3 o
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. # }' c8 a: q, h$ {% L1 p! | u" f) `0 A; j2 G$ J+ ?
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.5 a7 X) \' Z0 S- P. y
* F" ^9 t3 W, b+ bThis 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. / X" e9 J! u, a2 [5 u1 b( c" @5 {9 C ; |# V4 W/ l' }" A" KThey each received £1,000. ' j: z8 c) u6 O7 B% w0 \ 8 |7 W, X4 B6 j3 E( g+ ]6 Q) X- DThe 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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