7 I2 J$ P+ F% v& V' b0 @! ]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。 / ~* F' N6 K4 _% a1 c5 n& X* v" b4 a8 k' \. b
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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。4 Q: @! A% f& V Q& ?7 F
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Mao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize- Z9 q1 I. r* ` n) m
9 Q* @+ C0 M$ w9 }" UA book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.3 \& L; G' c$ K1 @
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Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. 6 b8 t2 Q$ j) ~, ?5 o1 C* `, a) _# b1 o5 J" }% D ^5 |
Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly".: x* x* |0 p+ i$ j4 N1 d
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He added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". ' D4 g+ A- @& e+ d" | _0 |! t0 U7 z# m, _7 q
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./ J% Y; ~* d9 j3 G+ g; {! e8 Q
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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. ; }, ^. H1 M8 {3 m" O 8 V# Q# W/ `9 yThis 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. * Y* }( q5 X$ o2 l! ^. L! e5 m" N- g |2 F1 H) N3 X
They each received £1,000. $ C* M3 |# t* E" u, h1 }/ G: F" B+ v- Y. _2 h/ e& O
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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