I haven’t read Strange Parallels yet. However, it is on my list of books to read, and before I put it on that list I did a fair bit of research on whether it was worth reading (spoiler: it definitely is). I have also read several articles written by Lieberman prior to Strange Parallels. Happy to share my findings in this post.

Strange Parallels: Southeast Asia in Global Context, c.800-1830 Vol. 1 was published in 2003, and, along with volume 2, was one of the very few books to do 3 things:

• Look at a ‘grand history’ of Southeast Asia (SEA)
• Consider how international events affected SEA (in other words, considering SEA as a part of ‘world history’)
• Consider how SEAsians’ actions and initiatives, as well as their reactions to international events, shaped events in SEA (in other words, Lieberman acknowledged SEA agency rather than viewing SEAsians as passive actors pulled along by international events)

The last groundbreaking book to do these 3 things was Anthony Reid’s Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, 1450-1680. However, Reid focused mainly on a time when trade was even more profitable and important for SEA than ever before, leading unavoidably to a focus on ports, coastal polities and the polities that supplied materials for export, which in turn led to a focus on maritime SEA.

Strange Parallels focuses instead on the factors that led to consolidation of polities, especially on continental SEA (the author has a background in Burmese history). It was also published some 15 years after Age of Commerce, resulting in the incorporation of updated studies and finds.

Turning to the reviews of Strange Parallels, it is testament to the breadth of the book, comparing as it does SEA with several other regions across Asia and Europe, that reviews were written by scholars of several regions. Leonard Andaya, one of the most respected scholars in the field of maritime SEA history, gave it a very positive review, describing it as ‘stimulating, well-researched and ambitious’. Victor Mair, a specialist in Inner and East Asia, described it as ‘coherent, forceful and spectacular’. John E. Willis, looking at the France and Russia segments of Strange Parallels, wrote that ‘every beginning graduate student in any form of history should be required to read this book’. In general, praise was given to clear writing style, depth of research and ambition. These three reviewers and more strongly endorsed several of the core ideas expounded in Strange Parallels, such as climate change acting as a driver of consolidation (NOT climate determinism, I hasten to add).

Here are some criticisms that I came across:

Eric Tagliacozzo points out that, before the Europeans needed colonies with clearly defined boundaries, borders in SEA were generally hazy. As such, he suggests Lieberman should have paid more attention to the spaces where empires overlapped, where rulers might owe allegiance to more than one overlord, and where trade and cultural mixing took place. Lieberman accepted this criticism wholeheartedly.

John E. Willis felt that some themes deserved more attention, such as Anglo-French military competition as a driver of French state formation, and French and Chinese political culture. Lieberman declared himself sympathetic to this, though he also pointed out that such an extensive book held very limited opportunity for further expansion.

Robert Hellyer felt that Japan could have been compared to its nearest geographical match - the Indonesian archipelago, which Lieberman also accepted.

Ramya Sreenivasan had some strong criticism. She claimed Lieberman argued that ‘state formation' was ‘the central motor both driving and manifesting’ long term development. She also claimed that Lieberman was ‘reifying’ the state, exaggerating its power and arguing that integration is inherently preferable to fragmentation. She disagreed strongly with both these arguments. Lieberman’s response was that she may have misunderstood his central arguments as the arguments she had taken issue with were not ones he had made.

As for Lieberman himself, he is well-respected. As far as I can tell, he’s never been called out for anything weird or intellectually dishonest.

The general consensus seems to be that Strange Parallels is an excellent 2 volumes and required reading for any student of Southeast Asia history. Or, indeed, any history in general!