7 U) W6 K6 E& g) z" b, |, s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。% G7 ~4 ?0 ^* B K3 f, L
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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。 - {) ?# B( v; @6 }8 y9 J8 ^, _1 W6 d5 T, G1 H P) h* N! ]
Mao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize / _8 J ^5 h4 f. _& k5 h3 O, g* f1 P
A book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. # ~) }# I2 L5 G B( J% E3 o3 D ! Y4 F* }8 N ^8 h* CMao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award.' C- k2 I$ S# @6 e' ^& o, D+ G6 V6 P
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Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly". ; y6 }( @$ q4 f! t+ f. m3 J5 `& b& l+ Y9 k* w' l7 I( b
He added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". 5 u4 p6 \) x- W9 j1 S& o6 L1 P' f/ ~" {# o
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. * N+ N3 N: O! L- @* l9 b . G j7 x8 Z* G/ YThe 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- S! O: [* q3 J
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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. M+ y e- s3 f
! A; |$ I9 C9 U; ^& iThey each received £1,000.! i$ Z. A) [8 E( E! I0 |. h
\3 C7 s [# G( \, _) ]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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