3 b- l% A# S4 v% C! E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。! c3 [) r8 c5 z& |& U2 N6 I0 l
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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。 2 y) `# R! y, i; \! O9 X0 s$ n! |3 h ! z* `2 O% @( N8 ]) m* u9 f! y. b- ?# e. U " a" J! X! ]' E! M1 L; R, }
冯克是为数不多获准使用中国历史档案的外国学者之一。 " B: F- e# c% ?, v4 i- z( c g( O$ _. z# k) B% BMao's Great Famine wins Samuel Johnson Prize$ [2 b( g0 t! O8 F7 a+ \* o
+ t4 |! e8 c2 d/ {1 ~" iA book about China's disastrous Great Leap Forward policy has won the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.6 X0 ~! M4 t/ X' A$ b+ e1 f
% C7 S9 P& n: f, bMao's Great Famine, by Dutch historian Frank Dikotter, beat five other short-listed titles to the award.0 y4 M& v( u; K1 K4 [
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Chair of the judges Ben Macintyre praised the book as an "epic record of human folly". & g: N) B7 P( q+ `3 L 8 R* _0 d5 i2 o/ \4 [" r- iHe added it was "essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of the 20th Century".: }# W" z6 ~# ?- p6 v
F2 E2 g$ \" q# wMao'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. 3 W* h* G( H, j/ Y7 z1 F! h2 G, ` . d- Y% D( P- h- |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. $ |* g. Z g: ~8 C6 s 3 D. |: J* n2 Y6 }: s* ~9 r1 yThis 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. p4 O' |# W3 z7 m0 T0 M, e! v% Y) R' H+ _
They each received £1,000.0 Y7 r5 J% @8 I0 ]9 m0 I# |
6 m" z/ A- l0 h8 L% x- X4 v+ Y" a* GThe prize was open to non-fiction books published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011.