The longer, three-volume version is better, though.
Here are some reading lists for these periods, focusing on church history (as usual):
Medieval Africa and the Middle East
Baum, W. and Winkler, D. The Church of the East: a concise history London; New York: RoutledgeCurzon 2003
Brock, S. ed. The Syriac Fathers on prayer and the spiritual life Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications 1987
Cahillot, C. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church tradition Paris: Inter-Orthodox Dialogue 2002
Cragg, K. The Arab Christian: a history in the Middle East London: Mowbray 1992
Davis, S. Early Coptic papacy: the Egyptian church and its leadership in late antiquity Cairo: American University in Cairo Press 2004
Frend, W. The rise of the Monophysite movement Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1972
Gabra, G. Coptic monasteries: Egypt’s monastic art and architecture Cairo: American University in Cairo Press 2002
Kaegi, W. Heraclius: emperor of Byzantium Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2002
Kamil, J. Christianity in the land of the pharaohs: the Coptic Orthodox Church Cairo: American University in Cairo Press 2002
Marcus, H. A history of Ethiopia Berkeley: University of California Press 2002
Meinardus, O. Two thousand years of Coptic Christianity Cairo: University of Cairo Press 2002
Regan, G. First crusader: Byzantium’s holy wars New York: Macmillan 2003
Thomas, D., ed. Christians at the heart of Islamic rule: church life and scholarship in Abbasid Iraq Leiden; Boston, MA: Brill 2003
Welsby, D. The medieval kingdoms of Nubia London: British Museum Press 2002
The Byzantine empire
Angold, M. Church and society in Byzantium under the Comneni, 1081-1261 rev. ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2000
Bathrellos, D. The Byzantine Christ: person, nature and will in the Christology of Saint Maximus the Confessor Oxford: Oxford University Press 2004
Browning, R. Byzantium and Bulgaria: a comparative study across the early medieval frontier London: Temple Smith 1975
Chadwick, H. East and West: the making of a rift in the church, from apostolic times until the Council of Florence Oxford: Oxford University Press 2003
Chryssavgis, J. John Climacus: from the Egyptian desert to the Sinaite mountain Aldershot: Ashgate 2004
Cunningham, M. Faith in the Byzantine world Oxford: Lion 2002
Dagron, G. Emperor and priest: the imperial office in Byzantium Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2003
Evans, J. The Emperor Justinian and the Byzantine Empire Westport, CT: Greenwood 2005
Giakalis, A. Images of the divine: the theology of icons at the Seventh Ecumenical Council Leiden: Brill 1994
Giuzelev, V. The adoption of Christianity in Bulgaria Sofia: Sofia Press 1976
Gregory, T. A history of Byzantium: 306-1453 Oxford: Blackwell 2004
Hamilton, J. and Hamilton, B. Christian dualist heresies in the Byzantine world, c.650-c.1450 Manchester: Manchester University Press 1998
Herrin, J. The formation of Christendom London: Phoenix 2001
Herrin, J. Women in purple: rulers of medieval Byzantium London: Phoenix 2002
Hussey, J. The Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire Oxford: Oxford University Press 1986
Limberis, V. Divine heiress: the Virgin Mary and the creation of Christian Constantinople London: Routledge 1994
Louth, A. Maximus the Confessor London: Routledge 1996
Meyendorff, J. Byzantine theology: historical trends and doctrinal themes 2nd ed. New York: Fordham University Press 1979
Meyendorff, J. St. Gregory Palamas and Orthodox spirituality Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press 1997
Morris, R. Monks and laymen in Byzantium, 843-1118 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1995
Norwich, J. J. Byzantium: the apogee London: Viking 1991
Norwich, J. J. Byzantium: the decline and fall London: Viking 1995
Norwich, J. J. Byzantium: the early centuries London: Viking 1988
Parry, K. Depicting the Word: Byzantine iconophile thought of the eighth and ninth centuries Leiden: Brill 1996
Pelikan, J. Imago Dei: the Byzantine apologia for icons Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press 1990
Pelikan, J. The Christian tradition: A history of the development of doctrine 2. The spirit of Eastern Christendom (600-1700) Chicago; London: University of Chicago Press 1974
Simeonova, L. Diplomacy of the letter and the cross: Photios, Bulgaria and the Papacy, 860s-880s Amsterdam: Hakkert 1998
Tachiaos, A.-E. Cyril and Methodius of Thessalonika: the acculturation of the Slavs Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press 2001
Whittow, M. The making of Orthodox Byzantium, 600-1025 Basingstoke: Macmillan 1996
Early Middle Ages
Blair, J. The church in Anglo-Saxon society Oxford: Oxford University Press 2005
Brown, P. The rise of western Christendom: triumph and diversity 200-1000 AD 2nd. ed. Oxford: Blackwell 2003
Carver, M., ed. The cross goes north: processes of conversion in northern Europe, AD 300-1300 York: Boydell 2003
Chapman, J. Saint Benedict and the sixth century Westport: Greenwood Press 1971
Christys, A. Christians in al-Andalus, 711-1000 Richmond: Curzon 2002
Collins, R. Visigothic Spain, 409-711 Oxford: Blackwell 2004
Cusack, C. Conversion among the Germanic peoples London: Cassell 1998
Daniel-Rops, H. The church in the Dark Ages London: Phoenix 2001
Dunn, M. The emergence of monasticism: from the Desert Fathers to the early Middle Ages Oxford: Blackwell 2000
Fletcher, R. Moorish Spain London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1992
Fletcher, R. The barbarian conversion: from paganism to Christianity Berkeley, CA: University of California Press 1999
Gameson, R., ed. St Augustine and the conversion of England Stroud: Sutton 1999
Hillgarth, J., ed. Christianity and paganism, 350-750 rev. ed. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press 1986
Houwen, L. and MacDonald, A., eds. Alcuin of York: scholar at the Carolingian court Groningen: Forsten 1998
Hylson-Smith, K. Christianity in England from Roman times to the Reformation 1. from Roman times to 1066 London: SCM 2001
MacMullen, R. Christianity and paganism in the fourth to eighth centuries New Haven; London: Yale University Press 1997
Markus, R. Gregory the Great and his world Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press 1997
McKitterick, R., ed. Carolingian culture: emulation and innovation Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1994
Moorhead, J. Theoderic in Italy Oxford: Clarendon 1993
Olsen, T. Christianity and the Celts Oxford: Lion 2003
De Paor, L. Saint Patrick’s world: the Christian culture of Ireland’s Apostolic Age Blackrock: Four Courts 1993
Pelikan, J. The Christian tradition: A history of the development of doctrine 3. The growth of medieval theology (600-1300) Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1978
Richards, J. The popes and the Papacy in the early Middle Ages 476-752 London: Routledge and Kegan Paul 1979
Wallace-Hadrill, J. The Frankish church Oxford: Clarendon 1983
Watt, J. The church in medieval Ireland 2nd. ed. Dublin: Macmillan 1998
Webster, L. and Brown, M., eds. The transformation of the Roman world AD 400-900 London: British Museum Press 1997
Wood, I. The missionary life: saints and the evangelisation of Europe Harlow; New York: Longman 2001
Later Middle Ages
Aers, D. Sanctifying signs: making Christian tradition in late medieval England Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press 2004
Barber, M. The Cathars: dualist heretics in Languedoc in the high Middle Ages Harlow: Longman 2000
Barber, M. The new knighthood: a history of the Order of the Temple Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1994
Berman, C., ed. Medieval religion: new approaches New York; London: Routledge 2005
Biller, P. The Waldenses, 1170-1530: between a religious order and a church Aldershot: Ashgate 2001
Blomkvist, N. The discovery of the Baltic: the reception of a Catholic world-system in the European north (AD 1075-1225) Leiden: Brill 2005
Brooke, C. The age of the cloister: the story of monastic life in the Middle Ages rev. ed. Stroud: Sutton 2003
Christiansen, E. The northern Crusades rev. ed. London: Penguin 1997
Davies, B. Aquinas London: Continuum 2002
Dickson, G. Religious enthusiasm in the medieval west: revivals, crusades, saints Aldershot: Ashgate 2000
Elliott, D. Proving woman: female spirituality and inquisitional culture in the later Middle Ages Princeton, NJ; Oxford: Princeton University Press 2004
van Engen, J. Religion in the history of the medieval West Aldershot: Ashgate 2004
Evans, G. R. Bernard of Clairvaux New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press 2000
Evans, G. R., ed. The medieval theologians Oxford: Blackwell 2001
France, J. The Crusades and the expansion of Catholic Christendom, 1000-1714 London: Routledge 2005
Frassetto, M., ed. The year 1000: religious and social response to the turning of the first millennium New York: Macmillan 2002
Galli, M. Francis of Assisi and his world Oxford: Lion 2002
Glick, L. Abraham’s heirs: Jews and Christians in medieval Europe Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press 1999
Hamilton, B. Religion in the medieval West 2nd. ed. London: Arnold 2003
Heffernan, T. and Matter, A., eds. The liturgy of the medieval church Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications 2001
Hopper, S. To be a pilgrim: the medieval pilgrimage experience Stroud: Sutton 2002
Hylson-Smith, K. Christianity in England from Roman times to the Reformation 2. 1066-1384 London: SCM 2000
Jotischky, A. Crusading and the Crusader states Harlow: Pearson Longman 2004
Kamen, H. The Spanish Inquisition: an historical revision London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1997
Kroll, J. and Bachrach, B. The mystic mind: the psychology of medieval mystics and ascetics New York; London: Routledge 2005
Leff, G. Heresy, philosophy and religion in the medieval West Aldershot: Ashgate 2002
Linehan, P. and Nelson, J., eds. The medieval world London; New York: Routledge 2001
Logan, F. A history of the church in the Middle Ages London; New York: Routledge 2002
Morris, C. The papal monarchy: the Western church from 1050 to 1250 Oxford: Oxford University Press 1991
Mundy, J. Europe in the high Middle Ages, 1150-1300 3rd. ed. Harlow: Longman 2000
Pick, L. Conflict and coexistence: Archbishop Rodrigo and the Muslims and Jews of medieval Spain Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press 2004
Rex, R. The Lollards New York: Palgrave 2002
Riley-Smith, J. Hospitallers: the history of the order of St John London: Hambledon 1999
Robinson, I., ed. The papal reform of the eleventh century: lives of Pope Leo IX and Pope Gregory VII Manchester: Manchester University Press 2004
Russell, J. A history of medieval Christianity: prophecy and order New York: Lang 2000
Sayers, J. Innocent III: leader of Europe 1198-1216 London: Longman 1994
Scott, R. The Gothic enterprise: a guide to understanding the medieval cathedral Berkeley, CA: University of California Press 2003
Shinners, J. Medieval popular religion, 1000-1500: a reader Peterborough, ON: Broadview 1997
Stouck, M.-A. Medieval saints: a reader Peterborough, ON: Broadview 1999
Thomson, J. The Western church in the Middle Ages London: Arnold 1998
Volz, C. The medieval church: from the dawn of the Middle Ages to the eve of the Reformation Nashville, TN: Abingdon 1997
Webb, D. Medieval European pilgrimage, c.700-c.1500 Basingstoke: Palgrave 2002
Here's an interesting book on recent American history. I've just finished reading Hand me my travelin' shoes: in search of Blind Willie McTell by Michael Gray. A really wonderful book. It's not just a biography of McTell himself but the story of Gray's researches, mostly in Georgia, to try to unearth the elusive details of that biography. He has a great sense of place and describes his encounters - positive and negative - with wit, even the scary confrontation with the guards at the building where McTell died, which has been converted from a hospital block into a prison. This is well worth reading merely for social history alone, quite apart from McTell himself. Indeed, the introduction states that it's written mainly for people who don't know anything about McTell and or the blues, simply because of the intrinsic interest of the story, and it does a great job of bringing the place and time to life (although I wonder how many of that target audience are likely to read it). Gray begins with the Civil War-era past of Georgia - revealing that McTell's great grandfather was a poor white farmer who fought for the Confederacy and who owned a single slave, McTell's great grandmother - and takes the story all the way through to the vexed question of who McTell's closest living relatives are today, and therefore who should get the royalties for his work. In the middle we find that McTell was both ordinary and extraordinary: a perfect professional who managed to live what was essentially a lower-middle-class lifestyle, not prosperous but never in want either, and who maintained the humour and wit of his records in everyday life - despite the terrible times he lived through. McTell was one of the most accessible of the pre-war blues artists (meaning that even people who don't like the blues can appreciate his work, because it's far more instantly appealing than the better-known but murky-sounding Delta blues of Robert Johnson and his ilk), so I hope this book arouses more general interest in him.
There are only two down-sides to the book, in my view: not enough pictures/diagrams (a genealogy would have made everything more comprehensible, and maps would have helped too); and surprisingly little discussion of McTell's actual records. Gray spends a couple of pages discussing "Statesboro Blues" and one or two other famous tracks, but doesn't really analyse McTell's style in general or say much about most of his records. For example, he talks about McTell's 1935 session in Chicago, and how the producer drove him and a couple of other musicians all the way from Atlanta in a day and a half; and he goes to Chicago and visits the place where the records were made, now a plush hotel - but he doesn't even mention the titles of the songs that were recorded. Again, he lists the titles that McTell recorded at his amazing 1949 session, but doesn't discuss them at all - not even the remake of "Broke Down Engine", far superior to the 1933 version that he rhapsodises about elsewhere. But these are only minor flaws really; overall it's the best music biography I've read.
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