3 b2 I( {! @! ?冯克现任香港大学教授，是不多的几个获准可以利用中国官方历史档案的学者之一。 . z1 m8 U" C2 F: V \1 `; T; k3 o- X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。 4 U! R& ~1 b* T5 K. F5 o 0 k2 W+ c4 R# n# _/ c( o* `7 z* v* ?0 v5 T9 e. b " s6 F4 Z4 r7 V" U, s
冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。9 ]8 T+ p9 L8 E/ Q
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Mao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize ' ~7 F2 _3 ?2 b1 Y8 D. O' o& H4 Q. k7 W6 y% P$ @1 Y
A book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. $ h; i4 b7 N7 t9 j4 m6 h2 T/ Q% y& P0 j2 B
Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. ' c! o) |: L) A8 u8 w# b* v- B4 t% I" v0 {/ n% B6 `
Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly". 5 {! D8 k4 V* y6 Q3 Z$ G' Q7 [: V0 H/ [% D3 b6 Q
He added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". 7 I# _9 q; W. d6 n/ d% s9 v$ j 5 E7 ~; i6 y" yMao'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.) h2 l$ J: ~! l, v8 ^! 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. % _7 B k v+ Y" R: b. i. Z& Z9 X / w6 i9 C: L+ r6 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. : t" O# c3 A2 H1 H* X" q/ n' o; ^! ?9 \+ ]1 J8 C$ H
They each received £1,000. 0 L( s0 s2 o i 8 R9 u4 R" A$ v# e; B7 gThe prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.
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