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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。+ ?/ p R/ A, \, U. D9 F
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Mao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize& }. t7 W e; A/ C
2 ^* H4 P$ D/ C+ Z5 NA book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.6 n- ~) n" y1 k, a4 E
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Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. 5 w5 o- ?. d9 ]- h9 t; f5 i * N' c0 }8 G* m2 k9 `- S2 k9 rChair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly".) ~9 R9 \! K# J7 i- L% ~0 [* G
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He added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". ' X" Q2 f4 w9 e! i: C/ E( W8 Y- V: ~0 J0 E i. _
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. 2 d: ]& l/ e4 D: } N$ c' S8 H$ N, [7 a
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 U9 ?2 W" Y' K Y/ K
, _% E% i# q. U0 Q6 B' S- jThis 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.# b6 {2 q x' q' v. N$ X. }
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They each received £1,000." W" l0 ]* n) m# M" @3 u
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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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