F5 Y. j% V1 A5 |2 x: b) ]+ i/ a+ E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% O0 U) U4 V: {$ K0 p* z) v
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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。( f4 V+ H3 h1 w8 A
4 P9 D2 X B; UMao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize 8 c- n' V& b9 M' K7 ?( Q8 s! t1 t. @6 s) _8 k) k8 p- G
A book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.) G3 K- X' d' P
6 u) D5 O1 V) sMao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. $ e$ a# n$ W: l ; J0 |* w$ u H+ n; d5 lChair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly". 3 u4 O8 x5 o7 s }2 i/ h5 \. n3 r! L. ]+ ]
He added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". ) T/ G' e# K, K% m, q8 G+ [5 c" J2 ^* a
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.! i0 X% v* h6 q% {% i
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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.: @9 l7 f$ `- y: A+ I% M6 w
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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. H3 [ {) F: c0 ~' I* A1 [ : [" ^0 D% A" x2 V( c8 fThey each received £1,000. ' d. {& V+ v, ?' L: E: p2 Q8 ^8 C9 p3 |
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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