$ b* x! e5 J( D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。) Z5 Z V( G: ^! `9 K4 Y3 F
- C0 C z e: T' ` 2 a; H5 N+ Q; U2 E @& U " T6 y( F7 L* B$ J4 b9 d# e冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。# q1 K/ T; @/ i w5 |. h6 I X
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Mao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize : c" h0 i# u) [5 X# z# c . Y0 i1 e2 y# F( h. AA book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. 1 [1 x5 [ c1 n# C+ j ' X/ A3 ~ x' IMao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. ; K9 I5 O r& I" N7 F3 { 1 i& K& o5 o; n0 _* v/ o, N/ oChair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly". : l2 G* H* W8 y* a+ |" D1 u8 [9 D
He added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century".7 @7 p+ c0 q7 U7 Y Z
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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. : J5 ^0 m. G% z- L' [! w3 N; A4 o/ q ~( V; P( t+ `( E2 |
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. ) y5 J1 k. R1 @: `$ Q0 w1 J, y) O- V6 [
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. 4 l, Y2 m8 l4 L1 b3 c ; _& b* ?8 u- G2 ]7 a- yThey each received £1,000., y5 O, Z* z' b
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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.