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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。 0 O( K% z' g6 |' L / e I7 y: d4 v; t, H4 KMao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize 9 b1 }* D7 d: b6 J& E9 V . j" h" e2 y$ rA book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.( o; L1 d8 f. ?
' v# _: W! @7 O% B, w6 @9 tMao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award.* @: V1 B+ ^; h; `9 ]
7 C2 D6 W; m: q0 NChair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly". ( |* a. w& o& V3 [0 Q& B# H q% D+ Z* u. E. R. T7 {( f3 v8 l
He added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". / ]& x8 ?! l% i# P2 ]9 b " }: `' M) w' K7 z- ~4 iMao'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.4 v& s' ]( a) b3 [( |5 B( B
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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., q2 E' ]5 X, W2 f- t
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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.: e- y+ _; a* L
& A `& ` X# s- n$ T/ _! d$ C5 |) [( KThey each received £1,000.7 |6 n; B7 e |3 f( ]. j/ I! I; G
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The prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.