3 c6 c4 I9 d, b9 k0 y& A * r* z: D0 a6 S/ ^ 9 [' I; j* C! ]$ l3 j3 `0 M V冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。 * |! \8 h( t- i2 p : m0 `4 ` }- C. m! C" d7 t0 ^$ rMao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize4 s/ ?5 l d$ u0 o0 {4 O
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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. 3 a! a9 s7 k& ^, X- V . ?6 M) X8 C7 g! s/ qMao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. 1 v/ ` h0 } u8 y+ r. F- J" Z4 s/ i
Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly".- w9 ~0 l/ ^' X* I# I$ V a) \" h
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He added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century".; }9 E1 I4 p6 T% ]$ Q- \
9 s4 T) k* j! E& O$ I# j. @( t* eMao'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. ! x4 X |& B$ R. z ) j5 A' Y0 g& M+ S0 A! C/ Q' |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.6 [. f7 X: z4 C! ]6 Z
0 N: m) R! P! v9 z1 m' |* b1 D7 sThis 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./ `6 X, z4 p5 s7 t* r
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They each received £1,000.- R; A) i. ]& B7 E7 B1 v) y5 W
7 u( J: y7 E& a; TThe prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.
