& F# c9 E1 F5 A/ S5 f$ B. y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。5 q0 x. x2 H. z4 T; p/ a( ?, Z, L
' `! m/ G2 x* R3 e! z/ y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。 8 g3 ^' q) |3 A8 W* Q) ?1 V. N $ J) ^5 _% H4 t! f5 w5 Z8 V& _8 t' H3 P3 V$ C8 M9 c % i/ n A1 Q! e+ i* A
冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。* b9 r/ J" z2 H+ A& E
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Mao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize B$ I+ K) f' Q: p& b; T: ^& r) t
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A book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. 5 H5 ^* A2 f) J: q8 H5 L $ G& k5 _: x9 p0 D( _Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. ( b4 y ]/ I# Y, Y& D0 p. L4 g- Y% U: b* O9 d- w; j+ e0 f
Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly".; I* a9 Z& M( O
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He added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century".1 z$ h& ]! \6 B2 x( O8 i i
8 V+ S0 d- r0 y$ ]8 Q( o: I$ C, [- L$ WMao'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. , m6 W5 {& }! y \7 W& Z* P. O# @0 j/ Z5 Y3 C) HThe 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.: W4 X* I. D1 [1 P
; o# j- _1 Q; Z ?3 J/ O, \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.$ }' x$ `- h$ F5 s+ J l
& w! f) Q- k7 aThey each received £1,000. + m$ Z* J: Y- M+ @- U2 O 9 A; p1 y U# l) E8 L& E! jThe prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.