* W) ]3 @& B6 n, v! S" A, U. I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。6 s. @5 ]* |& u, V: c
7 y& N* E8 k* }/ {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。+ i: u" j( p, q
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K0 @: y8 K, z" ] ! T2 A8 o4 o5 ^$ k9 L冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。 % [/ p1 B- \6 k) E6 p 1 f$ D9 B* z( jMao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize 1 f+ O$ \ f. R s4 ]4 J g9 y6 {& K! [ Z" v
A book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.0 L/ I/ |0 @ C& }5 b; m
0 n4 q& ]* ~7 [4 y7 d* ^Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. $ Q9 _' y! B/ K& V T7 W& n' T; k : ~) K3 I1 o u! w1 |6 T! S+ {Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly"." d$ f# M8 l Z/ x5 V- ^& f
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He added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century".( q5 X5 W5 B3 {# o! r
; S5 m8 \; j$ X' vMao'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.. T) ?: K9 Z$ \
' U0 i$ m( M bThe 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 @6 U1 ~7 _% e& f3 o; x/ t 3 R' Y7 Y( F4 YThis 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.: `' D% C6 e) ]
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They each received £1,000.) m# L& r8 L6 a% O' {; r
& T% f; } |. `( K% eThe prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.
