7 t1 q! N. `5 i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。# p, X/ w! Q. G3 o `
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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。 0 x% x) z7 v9 n$ ~- L$ ]% m( r' E) n# h. p8 j( d2 ]: v
Mao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize 0 M. W# | _9 l# C6 k8 o4 j8 w3 G) V& c0 I
A book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. % b' E- x2 V$ z U0 G/ ^% z: ~: G9 z! ]
Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award.8 E( u% Y9 L; `' v7 w* y# R/ T. y
6 v+ }" D; I+ d2 h) eChair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly". ) X( e) L$ d1 m; W. S3 X+ M' a3 \" d# P3 X7 {8 U( c1 S; V
He added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". 4 r) k8 B, p! K1 [2 M9 e1 k 7 u8 I$ |/ `0 d- C2 w$ h8 [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.$ t. K: N0 f' ~3 h: t8 f
% Z( f _ @, ~& ?# k8 }; MThe 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. 6 U; f$ q9 w ?% z: X4 d" w# J" Y0 I5 `
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. * ]7 `4 Y4 I, g5 F) P2 q, `* q u4 Y6 H
They each received £1,000. ( I7 C+ T# J* W `* w: q5 n& o# Q
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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