% Y* W3 J' K. y4 j: l# i6 S 0 C0 B7 F- G' g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 N7 l; B' [! @* w. j/ {" N! T
$ X) S( J2 R3 t4 m& qMao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize 5 }6 U, ]) x5 ? ' i% \& s) G- ]0 Z6 | FA book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. ; p; @) v. |0 Q " t G5 b6 r0 u$ S1 X6 R5 R6 EMao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award.4 |- [4 R6 o! p0 _ G! j6 |- `
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Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly". 9 j4 v- f, N* M- n" V. J ) Q* D! v; r( K5 z1 n2 i* F' cHe added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". 4 _5 u) `' d$ i& g% R! k . c; e' x( ?" k8 n3 x* q3 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. ) S: y& s+ m; b( G' V( ?( y$ [: y: \1 q, {8 Y% d2 D
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. $ f, T0 q3 I7 I# k' d. i1 f . U5 g+ j# K7 e1 ?; cThis 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. / c' F) }3 }" m3 ~/ S8 M; U' z5 t, o7 `
They each received £1,000.- c' h0 ]% J9 a+ q; l3 c" u8 X8 e
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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.
