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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。 * H" e W) B/ {- t : i$ Q9 _2 i% gMao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize* x9 x6 Y" C9 k6 h/ i2 B
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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. 2 T4 d8 f2 {. M0 f ( X9 N3 `+ ^9 J# k% r4 j- }Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. ( S$ e8 v y% a0 `& o# T; C/ } ) G3 ?; A0 r0 [( b% A+ j# mChair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly". W6 h* x" C4 F$ N! m ! X. M$ Y) I y3 ?% u; b0 g- hHe added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century".7 O2 T$ C& F( J' Y% t
0 R& f% i1 ~5 ^$ b% P1 rMao'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. : ?0 D: e z+ k9 Q' M : S3 u# G* [+ N q/ 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.3 I* e. N. _: M* O7 r
9 R4 q" _, `6 T8 ^5 ^% m* LThis 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.2 j/ W7 V0 ~7 |. w$ g. F
% b) W/ f( P; u0 [They each received £1,000. " [6 h. O5 g5 L/ f ~2 Z* d% [6 u8 w6 T" r% p+ l
The prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.