| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 109.5

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 109.5 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Comparative World

Victor Lieberman. Strange Parallels: Southeast Asia in Global Context, c. 800–1830. Volume 1, Integration on the Mainland. (Studies in Comparative World History.) New York: Cambridge University Press. 2003. Pp. xxiii, 484. $65.00.

This hugely ambitious project, marked by the publication of the first of two volumes, aims at nothing less than the repositioning of mainland Southeast Asia in world history. Whereas the comparative framework in premodern times is usually taken to be the Indic world or China, the one proposed here is Eurasia. The strange parallels in the title, which Victor Lieberman argues are really not so strange but susceptible to explanation once the historical record is understood, refer to synchronous political and cultural consolidations he identifies in Burma, Siam, Vietnam, France, and Russia. Japan also exhibits the same patterns. Lieberman is fascinated by administrative cycles, and in this respect the book builds on his earlier work in premodern Burmese history. Best of all, this author is well-organized, a definite strength in a book as large and complex as this one. His lectures must be a treat for student note-takers.

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