Preface -- 1. Introductory description of processes related to negative pressure in liquids -- 1.1. A qualitative picture of the formation of discontinuities in a liquid -- 1.2. Negative pressure -- 1.3. The Rayleigh bubble -- 1.4. Zel'dovich-Fisher nucleation -- 1.5. A qualitative description of the processes in a liquid dielectric in a non-uniform pulsed electric field -- 1.6. A flat capacitor dipped in a dielectric fluid -- 1.7. The polarization (Maxwell) time -- 1.8. The flow induced in the vicinity of a needle-like electrode: a hydrostatic pressure2. Classic cavitation -- 2.1. The definition of cavitation and formulation of the basic problem -- 2.2. Cavitation in the subsonic flow of fluid in a pipe -- 2.3. Conditions for cavitation bubble formation near propeller blades -- 2.4. Cavitation generated by acoustic and shock waves -- 2.5. A new look at nucleation3. The physical properties of liquid dielectrics -- 3.1. Water -- 3.2. Experimental data related to oil and some other liquid dielectrics -- 3.3. Liquid helium4. A liquid dielectric in an electric field -- 4.1. A dielectric as a system of dipoles -- 4.2. The potential of a system of dipoles -- 4.3. The dielectric constant -- 4.4. The energy of the electric field -- 4.5. Energy of a dielectric in an external electric field -- 4.6. A dielectric ball in a homogeneous dielectric medium in an external constant electric field -- 4.7. Polarizability of atoms and molecules -- 4.8. Ponderomotive forces in liquid dielectrics -- 4.9. Forces acting on the boundary between two dielectrics -- 4.10. Forces acting on a boundary of a dielectric sphere5. Dynamics of a dielectric liquid in a non-uniform pulsed electric field -- 5.1. System of equations and boundary conditions in prolate spheroidal coordinates -- 5.2. Numerical results and discussion -- 5.3. Flow arising at adiabatic switching of voltage and its rapid shutdown -- 5.4. Linearized equations and example results -- 5.5. Comparison of numerical results with measurements -- 5.6. Initiation of cavitation and nanosecond breakdown in oil on water microdroplets -- 5.7. Qualitative analysis of a drop deformation in the pulsed electric field6. Cavitation in inhomogeneous pulsed electric fields -- 6.1. Ponderomotive forces in the vicinity of a nanopore -- 6.2. Nucleation in inhomogeneous pulsed electric fields -- 6.3. Expansion of nanopores in an inhomogeneous pulsed electric field -- 6.4. Concluding remarks7. Liquid helium in a non-uniform pulsed electric field -- 7.1. Dynamics of liquid helium in a non-uniform pulsed electric field -- 7.2 Regimes of cavitation inception in liquid helium -- 7.3. Possible limitations associated with the dielectric strength of liquid helium -- 7.4. Conclusions8. Optical diagnostics in dielectric liquids in inhomogeneous pulsed fields -- 8.1. Shadowgraph and Schlieren methods -- 8.2. Rayleigh scattering on the cavitation region emerging in liquids -- 8.3. Optical emission spectroscopy of nanosecond and sub-nanosecond discharge in liquids9. Breakdown in liquids in pulsed electric fields -- 9.1. A brief overview of the experimental data -- 9.2. Problems with the ionization model of breakdown development in liquids -- 9.3. Problems of the bubble breakdown model -- 9.4. The cavitation discharge model and analysis of experimental data -- 9.5. A qualitative picture of nanosecond breakdown in liquids -- 9.6. The area of breakdown initiation at a nanosecond voltage pulse in the vicinity of a needle-like electrode -- 9.7. The problem of primary electrons.