6 July 2011 . o( Z- X7 O. m. c, U" U
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一本有关中国大跃进运动的历史著作赢得了由BBC赞助的英国塞缪尔·约翰逊文学奖。5 L8 y, b' l% m5 b0 D0 e6 U/ H8 ^5 |
8 ?" ?6 ~( I I8 u7 o1 K _( W) K' zMao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize" |. C" v1 B+ `. i/ c
( ^2 Z3 D/ w$ ^' ~) \A book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.* ]/ ^6 Q7 @6 }
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Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award.. \4 s0 `( h! K' r* o
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Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly". & N5 h2 W$ y+ l- `7 ` 0 t7 l5 _ ~/ b& F& BHe added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". , w' Y! N0 P. o8 L( F2 Q3 Y0 `) X* E' B9 p$ Q. a
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 M. |" a' ?& h0 [1 P" F8 i3 J/ a0 V; L" H5 M( k, `+ k
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. % y# G( x2 Z0 r8 r. { ( V+ m8 o X \$ sThis 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.; q' L% D* T" q, @+ }/ n6 c: ?
! x$ _9 T( ]; k" [7 b" u9 E3 R( JThey each received £1,000.$ {3 N; _: n: Y
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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.