7 s7 J% ?+ z: T: b1 l / r; s& \0 C% ^; ]- j 7 \6 v/ F. d- r, ]# i冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。8 [- g; i! f. g6 J
+ L9 v) F( r2 }6 j k- SMao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize i! F/ ], B" [ ) b+ S+ o. b/ F' V: a7 p; `7 tA book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. " J$ D* h4 U! H& ^' G z! [: z* H
Mao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award. 2 ^% @' Z1 o) S7 l0 Y6 o- P' U3 @1 n7 `( [; ]( H
Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly". ; R: ^/ B P/ L. W- r0 o1 E9 N7 ~ s) s6 ]# a2 R6 ~0 W/ {. @
He added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century". / }9 h8 M* |. Y7 _8 s. | ' o" c2 f6 f( U+ r( d; hMao'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 C F: G6 M( I* K9 V
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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.8 _) U/ y1 |6 {+ s" ?: P; }
8 j9 a, {6 x7 i8 k8 Y/ T# G# XThis 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. , C- I' V* _0 ~: B/ c. i( j! m% c0 q. F/ o" f1 |
They each received £1,000.' F, E* ]( r% e$ R* q
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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.
