1 t! Y! j1 G: c& v8 @, f1 RMao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize1 f. D0 {1 K) g- n5 ?
, [5 y7 ]/ X7 u1 n5 Q/ h2 w
A book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. ; l1 N7 d, ^8 @) n3 W5 c: z7 u7 Y7 F! \# i2 P
Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award.) t4 c1 O, a- r }# D. ]
2 Y' N# L- `2 q+ Q! E( p. P' j/ k
Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly".% T/ C* u0 _. W
( V. t4 A/ {2 y; @$ ]& i- fHe added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". ? S1 w; @1 v 1 m0 T* {: v0 |+ [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.* F T" w- o2 A# Q+ ?
+ p6 a- H1 z, p0 w. V3 \) SThe 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. . X+ ?* K2 C( F$ G" L# }+ Z* h! F8 f$ ]
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.# F# M$ f# Q* e# V1 r
2 K0 W( y9 _7 H. e, C' l% _& qThey each received £1,000. * x( x! S8 \" g( Y6 a0 U2 _1 v* p# p: V# d- z3 B
The prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.