' l+ l; a* P( f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。 % w2 z0 q1 M. x7 D a8 u1 {0 _! n$ _( y% j) @4 _
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。 ! g" o$ T! D( N5 b- h : \7 E* L6 Q8 c- f + N, ]7 @, g/ v- c0 \7 B ! F+ R* ?& O7 C( c冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。 4 k$ e0 h3 w$ E2 H b # v0 X( S% P+ `/ m. X. O1 v: KMao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize) h7 S8 r4 ~0 e! `' [; m' Z$ 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. 5 Q9 k5 s) K+ S6 }# {; i4 H, V6 R! c' w" A# \
Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. . p4 X* I, @+ D8 x C8 k# `* c' q5 `8 m+ W: U% _2 `Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly".3 @0 v( _7 x% Y% @
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He added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". 5 H* W3 m9 L3 [: `' k2 W( i % _# H. @+ P3 V) K! AMao'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.* h* n/ x' E' s; H+ x1 R
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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.$ |- u: l8 w- A. X/ o" H
& M" Z o$ ?4 l; ^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. 4 ]" q7 P5 s4 k' a/ Z; a. V2 n8 x
They each received £1,000. N0 t' \' ? W/ J
. S9 ^# s2 e, Q- K$ _ G- YThe prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.
