2 j& v1 i. c) g/ XMao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize ) y- L2 ~, ], P- w$ V: Z m6 @) ?8 ~ 0 X* o/ B7 A0 Z3 QA book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. w* T1 |1 o7 F$ A4 L! _
1 D) s0 { Q# i" P* G' RMao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award.: |' h* `; z. b
) M6 Z6 Y; w) a' LChair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly". $ H4 i( \ G0 R% [% V( e }7 E, V' F! [) |8 H
He added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". * J* x5 W9 N1 Z, R6 |; V2 Q. m' \ : p" E( B4 f( U3 Y" Q3 NMao'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. - n Y) S# K4 w" d0 Q7 X; S/ o: z/ 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. n* {2 k7 W# w }( H" `# h
5 N$ T# W: R p) X( j7 P1 t) C
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.7 J1 m: }- V7 k1 e
+ z9 C5 M; @% s) z7 r# |4 R! z
They each received £1,000. ( z) J) p8 w Q' o9 Z0 n3 _8 ]" v+ |& Q0 a% V) e
The prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.
( ?" ~" ~5 _* ~0 W