8 b' o( c6 g h( z1 v: 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。4 P4 C! k# V" J" ? E6 E7 [
# h# Y) X* ]1 t( ?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 m2 } y8 H9 ~! d; O2 x: e: Y ! c; c# R5 \- D4 N, F: n- h1 P, w. g6 [0 r @ 9 r9 E0 j9 r$ N. F/ J* l" Z冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。- T9 r" G# K9 X# L- }* E
: f5 z1 e; \: MMao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize ' R" L6 h! ^. \5 g1 T5 W# D( R" C! Q4 o5 k; B
A book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. : E' z* x- z6 {& M ) z+ \) [% R3 Z7 K8 F' K/ YMao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. 0 ]% e* C1 Q, u& r2 V1 R! C8 ]8 A' V8 V
Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly".+ y! d1 m" g) R# ^
, H* e. T2 l/ O! F' r0 C( L. uHe added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century".% u' O: @+ P+ n. a" u
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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.5 Z/ e L) D0 T5 O* Y" \# ?
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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. * e- V2 R3 ~5 a* w- h 5 U& [& W- j- BThis 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. 8 g5 A, M7 F: t% D9 Y- G2 |$ x # H+ j; i; o( \ T! yThey each received £1,000.) R8 j; w( R9 a
% k/ a% K- y3 V& ]5 L1 u4 mThe prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.
