( z1 s# T9 t |) [' b% L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。 5 |4 {+ R- @, Y; d8 ^+ P% Z } 8 [2 C4 I# E' Y0 e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。 4 Y8 h, N# _2 @1 S5 j1 E / t$ l2 f- W7 ^) a5 v# |& B$ ]. s' e5 s d1 v6 u & K6 S' ], ~* G: N' B冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。6 F; n {3 J' c
) Q# _* U' f8 V' k9 cMao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize ) s+ F. J8 Q, i7 V, O f9 u# h ' O; f& u+ ~6 H; c! ZA book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.8 ^# e6 p W/ w7 g) }4 I; f1 } V
I+ f' z* h% G9 p2 TMao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. ) f) S$ k2 |4 H: Y9 r6 b# i. S8 r+ [/ b# h
Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly".2 D5 \2 ?' e' D, V, g2 n/ \; j
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He added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century".0 T5 M$ m- s8 S
; a( X9 U1 t% dMao'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., J/ h3 V; s) W! N# a) [" h
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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. , K( D R8 [0 m6 x7 i 2 A8 e* t. Y( P5 `/ W x( x; CThis 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. p% L/ H" \2 U% w% f: s0 ? + T+ e" Q2 ^ P, ?They each received £1,000. 5 A" |8 H3 w3 x' [9 U/ e9 `9 u8 T% { * k7 O: D7 H4 T; j% CThe prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.
