# I; _5 _2 ]% L' ^0 O & v' ` v. I( [冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。 0 Y& l. n/ c, E- y5 T" X/ x) W& { : T% T6 J. B- F" x' _& g( }- T& IMao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize ( S& J1 K% L( { m+ \, X % X$ t, o! q: E1 Q& V$ i% XA book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. - x1 Z2 y% H5 g6 j# I+ r; I) ?0 Z2 k3 G. `: e
Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award.! R; a* {# Q+ E0 }8 ?5 ]" q5 l
" K5 Z4 c- V/ [* l bChair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly". " P1 E0 T7 g9 k S/ [# g* A0 E" e/ o$ |' g) c7 s/ i9 M# G, z
He added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". ) J& L4 q4 J; r: b. p7 p4 q2 m 9 g8 C; e% R$ B- b* W- SMao'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.6 k& m) {" i# b$ C8 _( P! i
( B0 `5 }7 y( I3 |4 ~: v" b' f9 Z5 kThe 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. , v8 P4 m1 r6 p( w% w7 \ 0 h2 o' [+ F3 Y1 G2 _( r1 tThis 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 G: R5 [' |& F / h6 t# c. r0 v7 @/ q q4 NThey each received £1,000. O: [. Y& i* {) m. `2 b Q( g
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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.
