! y6 y9 |4 w; @, ?, s i 9 H! K+ @( `$ h3 z( A0 z0 T' E/ s# r) } * Q5 p0 p6 n Y8 f冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。: Q; l0 @- B) I% s* |3 e+ p7 A
, ^/ K# _- b- _; t. r1 [Mao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize 9 B0 S1 R+ o a7 u- u9 C' o: Q, U- H) a: I; S1 g
A book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.# ^' ?. g. U" R9 f3 e
. E6 @, D% k. \3 lMao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award.8 k; G& A. x) R* ~
I! z3 k" F7 H9 HChair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly". K8 c2 J# i% ]0 N* ]& F ; v: H _# V* D) h' WHe added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". , B, j5 _' x& a; z7 D( j$ W: _' U7 m. @( [7 D4 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.5 I: S! P- Q) z9 J+ h6 p) F3 {
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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. ! Q0 v( n- v( @/ f 0 z' H7 K+ s5 I, i9 }# F: _& qThis 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. 7 k! ]# V: G, Q) A$ d! j. R! A* b) O- e, m; o' W
They each received £1,000. 1 A( U5 v% j9 Y0 P 9 F% w7 O5 ~1 `6 J) ?The prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.
