0 e, [0 p! R) y+ }3 r8 L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。 0 }4 F( u o# F w+ [2 } ! ^0 H8 f9 V3 ]/ M; W: i8 f+ P" g. y- B. j y: J& B8 s/ W ' r$ Y5 E$ k5 o6 {
冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。7 s3 d1 S; }- I' W# u9 D
3 A* y$ g& V3 `7 J* TMao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize & m7 c% b) V, n+ Z, }: A $ A$ k6 I, i1 h+ @, oA book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. ; [2 ^3 o" j$ S- T3 J# y, u# P, P" n' A9 I1 C9 ?
Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award.2 H0 d- b; I0 ^( A1 d) v
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Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly". ' n% }9 l9 k- Q; f2 ^2 R * ^* y( p. ]) @, X$ q- S0 M' Q! f* tHe added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". 6 O S8 U( l! u5 x2 M4 | ( Z% j6 c: ?* \9 oMao'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./ v0 J/ L, t) {& a& f+ i! S$ Z
( e0 J) I) z4 `/ B& s$ zThe 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.1 s i( S( G4 ~+ J" z. p. v
) a) [2 s- x1 L* U& C% n6 N! t f, GThis 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.# U( q [& q0 E( i1 c9 I
6 [" _8 b+ d8 ?( o/ S4 ]' L5 nThey each received £1,000., ^* b, m( n8 g0 j( h# k0 S
& H" ^. o& U- F! A% p2 tThe 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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