( Y7 a3 V, w% \( H冯克现任香港大学教授，是不多的几个获准可以利用中国官方历史档案的学者之一。 7 k/ r; ~, B# |7 L' w6 L, E0 D ( j9 ?* G9 [; V; B. m* v( z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。# H( Y; {2 I& P
4 E2 g3 a3 o2 K# V- T* q# z$ S9 ^4 F' N 6 ~: _: Y5 j+ Y i2 j8 x6 c
冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。/ V% k& t; Z9 A( ^; ?# d: u
# J, Q( c# X6 X5 \
Mao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize & l, W) M( N; Y" j6 h" L# w 9 M4 Q/ r2 ?+ dA book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. + d9 W7 W" D8 Q+ R, f 8 j$ X2 q! Z) r3 ?Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. + u/ L5 W) o% g0 Q4 i% I" [! h- j" a& }8 _* y+ [) C
Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly".. x; r/ m& a4 \- {: B- Y- y% J
* R+ F5 p" n* B% {3 ^
He added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century".+ \5 v( h' T O+ [ H. D
' n# Q0 X1 ~" k* g# \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.9 Y" b7 \; [8 K m, L$ E2 h
7 ]+ k* @/ H6 `' |- q) x
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. 4 E4 N+ w, H5 `" G$ h' E: x, J# U G" {8 H% e4 b
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. 1 A! e. S1 B7 o& p2 Y0 Q U' x/ I, W
They each received £1,000. ) t+ L. z9 J2 \" Y* ~+ C' b+ k ; [5 D9 k& K' g! i1 FThe prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.
6 ~: _: Y5 j+ Y i2 j8 x6 c