) {& v% P/ s# J& x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。 . N2 p t0 i: X; [) C* D- j/ p/ L% B1 j$ ?# m7 a( N& F: L/ x
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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。 ( S1 [; s+ a7 e" _* f7 u; P2 O" J/ r, p# O. h- g
Mao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize0 F! F1 N. D/ j% ?
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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. ) Q$ G. D* p1 o( P! v0 V: _9 h/ }
Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award.! w$ k$ T) u$ S9 V! u, i
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Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly".! T- G( @( n# F. G' {0 d
0 T9 G4 y a. A7 H2 iHe added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". ( I+ t+ _: @* }0 A ) l* v% P0 V4 S6 \6 mMao'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.) a; S1 {. C& m# v7 A
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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.6 }, m* [' w$ g1 E% P8 f
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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. ) }; b# u, m: Q/ ?: g9 O ^% w, x $ Y1 [7 m& z2 @/ l' g# G" PThey each received £1,000.0 x5 P/ A) ^0 C
" U! b/ R, Z7 B. v/ T- k: F) aThe 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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