" z2 T7 E+ K* b+ u( r# R2 W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。 9 Z5 Z; D+ [) Q- U* d% R- S$ @& \) t6 T3 m
& N( U+ b8 e8 I. O8 S1 `) J: B ; J, |# V+ l/ i3 @9 U2 o D5 _冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。4 o' ^! J. ?. D6 d% G# d
; |/ O; W+ A$ r2 b3 pMao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize & e: F, K$ z& G/ z# }, h# i% k* }( ], F: j8 s5 O
A book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. - I3 Z8 C& o/ v5 [5 [) U5 g$ l# Y2 L% ]8 k9 ]) ?6 I
Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. 7 f+ u4 v* z; u @, q9 U$ Y. E+ z Y3 v4 @
Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly". " G$ w) ?4 _& B& S4 O8 _, ?3 n$ f6 h7 _3 a* r( J8 h
He added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". * F7 F1 `" D& w2 @' \6 T - @5 C$ O% Q* Q9 H0 ?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.+ J! p% G3 M- { `% }5 l
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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. 0 i+ X! q$ x/ L( Q' o. i) K, w6 Q8 Y 6 c1 R5 _" T. K0 @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. - d& n9 G3 {9 l9 ?! q ! c" a5 ]5 e1 u2 f( F% a$ }1 J8 kThey each received £1,000.7 l6 E- O: x4 K2 g6 t, a
) Z! X! R1 l* U8 M3 O% ^! c, bThe prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.
