- D, R, _, P& P8 s# q. P6 R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。8 U) K1 s/ b# T. S4 a5 V5 l) v7 v
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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。/ m/ m( q, Q5 X: `5 `. m( a* N% E5 \
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Mao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize % j5 m2 E# l7 [6 g1 E/ Z 7 {! I G' V* o. V8 J0 QA book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.1 o& Q% g4 F' E5 n& Q
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Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award.5 R9 T8 a; h" M0 L
7 Q' j2 y3 D: m AChair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly". 6 _. p s) c& I, t k8 F; ]) A# v5 ^4 G
He added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". 5 j+ p; F8 W6 d+ b* g3 R+ F# X7 |& x& [; f
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. _) ?- J9 P. A3 r' e
5 j9 k) K1 ^) ~0 X8 N/ GThe 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. - |5 A3 X) ^" D( F: Z+ |0 q- T) D. G1 l& w9 i1 b* ?. I8 |
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. ' z: q" g' ]1 T8 h8 \5 G9 Q) y5 S5 `; J; V6 U% t; b
They each received £1,000. , ? E0 Y7 R% t " g5 m/ p; N8 I# C) c9 T2 o% BThe 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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