& K5 f [' ]% V9 `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。- A& F# y6 ?9 D2 T. N7 j
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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。 & b0 [& ?6 c/ y8 h# R6 `9 b( I$ \/ E/ T/ V# K* c& `
Mao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize ! U0 y: [* K* o6 V# C ( w; F" u$ e: I. ~) u. D3 A# WA book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.* Q" x( O* z# o
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Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award.& M+ q0 T6 U% a/ Z/ r. Y
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Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly".6 |! @* I, {# f* Q
3 \0 n& G& K8 z+ `- nHe added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century".+ ^, c/ N" ?8 e7 r5 D
$ Q- F# x1 t( _$ _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.; Y! ]4 |' ]1 k* W
" d! i- Y: l/ |7 u0 ZThe 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." F" |0 L8 q" Y
- R5 h) r3 o0 i* HThis 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. 1 U- d0 u5 r/ t' q; ^. z) Z6 u( }3 n+ A7 v1 l
They each received £1,000.+ E. Y* ?. N& H' N+ k
% I a. J, D- \* Z, P: vThe 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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