) N, e/ N% T/ f! {4 a! `5 s. g9 |" F
冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。* \ M7 P) \' @9 a# D& S' ?# E( ^2 |
$ o ^, A3 z. b2 G
Mao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize) _+ ]' z+ s7 A# t" ~; H6 b& Q
. l& @; w( e" v& G. yA book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. 3 [& y% G6 }% e( t5 k7 W: f1 y% T0 J$ m0 y! z" X
Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award.8 ^1 n/ z4 X+ p( W$ I2 Z
; }4 T9 ^0 [6 B ?: a+ n5 NChair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly". : x- |9 D; b* T+ f 3 u3 c4 M3 n" J7 \4 U) L1 jHe added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". 3 }2 }1 z7 d. l: j6 A! ~% @- c) O % ?$ \7 g2 Z1 tMao'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. ( k2 Z# `9 d* V2 j/ e , l# a q0 v" w" P7 IThe 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. ) Y8 U. M) ~* L& K; d$ S3 Y) j 4 P, A0 v; r6 P& A# qThis 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 D; ]8 ^. w5 V! z$ }6 w& T" M; N$ _) i5 F: ~& o3 `7 r
They each received £1,000. & _* i+ X0 u0 z) q% }$ V- }/ e2 I4 ]! D
The prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.
4 a! `5 s. g9 |" F