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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。 $ i& W5 ?# G7 ~' R3 [* S4 J/ m$ G5 a8 B% N8 O* z. I5 [( f
Mao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize; T( Q& k& `" y- ?. y! P2 |
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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. + d8 {" q6 ^3 p; C $ A9 \! ^5 [* C/ u: u& cMao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award.2 V' y$ `+ I+ W+ J4 J q; g
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Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly". & @) q6 o& A! k1 { b4 q0 X$ |: ~$ U( h( f
He added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century".. k- X$ z2 C w: S; l) {) M+ Q b" z' N
& k; c0 e0 |# m2 y, D+ YMao'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. ! @1 V; m" J: T6 r' E( H) X* P# v( b) k3 M! H
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. ( s, S/ Z# F/ K$ A3 H4 l* G3 c6 d7 y5 n: H- a/ Z+ w* ^
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.' i [( l" S, P5 b- B' A7 `# z/ O
( e7 b& V/ f! b4 F, X/ M9 ?They each received £1,000.$ H' x, S2 S; R1 ]
1 _$ A4 j2 B* e2 i9 CThe 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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