Strange Parallels: Southeast Asia in Global Context, c. 800-1830. Volume 2, Mainland Mirrors: Europe, Japan, China, South Asia, and the Islands

Studies in Comparative World History

by Victor B. Lieberman

Blending fine-grained case studies with overarching theory, this book seeks both to integrate Southeast Asia into world history and to rethink much of Eurasia’s premodern past. It argues that Southeast Asia, Europe, Japan, China, and South Asia all embodied idiosyncratic versions of a Eurasian-wide pattern whereby local isolates cohered to form ever larger, more stable, more complex political and cultural systems. With accelerating force, climatic, commercial, and military stimuli joined to produce patterns of linear-cum-cyclic construction that became remarkably synchronized even between regions that had no contact with one another. Yet this study also distinguishes between two zones of integration, one where indigenous groups remained in control and a second where agency gravitated to external conquest elites. Here, then, is a fundamentally original view of Eurasia during a 1,000-year period that speaks to both historians of individual regions and those interested in global trends.

Genres: History, Asia, Nonfiction, China, World History, Medieval History

976 pages, Paperback

First published November 30, 2001

Reviews

[AskHistorians]

Lieberman begins with the development of more centralized society in Southeast Asia, then branches out to show similar patterns of development in several other Eurasian regions, including Russia, France, and briefly, China, Japan, India and Island SE Asia. The scope is breathtaking. This is a once in a generation achievement that is still being absorbed by the Asian studies community.

[Tony Gualtieri]

Brilliant synthesis of Eurasian history the emphasizes synergies between regional developments without ignoring the factors that make each region unique. The detail is overwhelming but acts like the lemmas of a mathematical proof, all in support of the central thesis. The conclusion that local historians cannot ignore global patterns opens up a whole new range of considerations for historiography.

[Maradox]

Author obviously has an agenda

[William]

In my opinion, the first volume is better, but Lieberman's explorations of the worldwide parallels with SEA are worth reading.