Both a specialist in precolonial Burma and a comparativist interested in global patterns, Victor Lieberman graduated first in his class from Yale University and obtained his doctorate from the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London. His publications include Burmese Administrative Cycles: Anarchy and Conquest, c.1580–1760, which won the Harry J. Benda Prize from the Association for Asian Studies; Beyond Binary Histories: Re-Imagining Eurasia to c.1830, which he edited and an earlier version of which appeared as a special issue of Modern Asian Studies devoted to Lieberman's scholarship; and Strange Parallels: Southeast Asia in Global Context, c.800-1830, Volume 1: Integration on the Mainland, which won the World History Association Book Prize. He is the Marvin B. Becker Collegiate Professor of History and Professor of Southeast Asian History at the University of Michigan.

• 1. A far promontory: Southeast Asia and Eurasia; 2. Varieties of European experience (I): the formation of Russia and France to c.1600; 3. Varieties of European experience (II): a great acceleration, c.1600–1830; 4. Creating Japan; 5. Integration under expanding Inner Asian influence (I): China: a precocious and durable unity; 6. Integration under expanding Inner Asian influence (II): South Asia: patterns intermediate between China and the protected zone; 7. Locating the islands; Conclusion.

'Victor Lieberman's two-volume opus is the most important work of history produced so far this century … It is no exaggeration to say that Strange Parallels is a paradigmatic work. It will inform our understanding of human history for generations to come.' The American Historical Review