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冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。 1 d. o4 Z0 ~7 j6 _% Y- B0 e$ {5 v! K: J1 V @3 s0 g M: e* |/ G. D
Mao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize- x. A8 b2 _" S7 y
3 j6 X5 z8 w" M3 T) H& y. |A book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. ! K( n% Z9 N4 ]6 E8 \( F1 Z, } [7 } L9 ^- j/ ^( q5 Q( j
Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. 1 W: Y$ w0 z# ~/ _4 G, Y+ G. T, z5 O, Z. |0 L7 ]6 |+ b6 H: X
Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly". * \& r- f. T+ B; Y$ h 2 o8 C5 ^ I0 {& Q' V6 IHe added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". " ]$ b0 }1 u# f$ ^- u2 M" n/ u+ W! l9 `6 d
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. 3 {, R1 Y2 g- t | + O$ |9 N( Q8 @! k% ]7 M1 X. xThe 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( d$ O: a6 w* v
# F9 T( [3 `9 V6 U5 l$ ^5 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.8 o; V6 U. V- P' c8 _
) t: O8 }/ h# {5 \4 FThey each received £1,000. # w+ S' N* _* x0 k) [8 M! f7 \: P# A$ v- E
The 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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