" p& _" ]$ a- G" G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。1 ^# X$ I0 o6 K2 p& _4 [
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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。/ c+ N M( _8 l! @ Y& L
2 y0 m/ Y7 G7 G$ E0 d* m8 O2 D8 p' X O: _4 T y" m* T y! N' L . \+ v9 |' k) R$ s. R* s( {) q冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。 / l/ q; U6 m" P# w, @. \" V8 n! i) W3 v8 U" B4 d
Mao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize w7 [& Y# k0 e( t- v5 h" q; w, O3 A( q1 K
A book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. , o5 x! `7 N( ]+ y. ?2 w " h5 ?, @- i: g0 C/ vMao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award.0 G# g* b! x3 S
) A9 ?4 H% e; TChair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly". 6 _2 r6 X3 O7 Q+ R! v: w9 k/ A4 g! S8 O) r) b
He added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". ) h3 `9 q" n, X. y `* L, Z" d+ j0 h q5 P
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.* B$ O: F4 L3 s0 U
0 f# |* L, ^2 mThe 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.: p, f$ F! ]% E& V, W- y% G
6 {: M4 U1 D7 f' {$ {% q1 JThis 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.0 a" k& S, _3 p- B6 q
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They each received £1,000.; s$ y2 [* B% J( A
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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.
