Other History of the Medieval World textbook?

[Yabusame]

I'm starting to think about my reading plans for next year and I'm wanting to move on from the Ancient World to the Medieval World (I'll be back in 4 years to the ancients). I'm anxious to read SWBs History of the Medieval World but I would also like to read another textbook.

 

This year, I read SWBs History of the Ancient World and An Introduction to the Ancient World by Lukas de Blois et al.

 

I'd like to do the same for Medieval history. What Medieval World history textbook would you guys recommend if SWB hadn't worked so hard on HoMW?

 

I will be buying & reading SWBs book once it is published, but I'd like to hear what you guys are already using in the four-year rotation of history for your HSers.

 

Thanks in advance,

Yabusame.

Edited November 17, 2009 by Yabusame
Spelling error corrected in title.

[swimmermom3]

My current list used for planning for next year with my ds and keeping up with my high school dd this year includes:

 

A World Lit Only By Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance - William Manchester

 

The Making of the West: Peoples & Cultures - Hunt/Martin/Rosenwein/Hsia & Smith

[elizabeth]

 

http://www.amazon.com/Civilization-Middle-Ages-Completely-Expanded/dp/0060925531/ref=sr_1_1/180-0607095-8612501?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258506385&sr=1-1 Norman Cantor is the author and this is the most well structured book I have read on the subject . I plan on using both his book and SWB history. I always have used two books due to my desire to show dd differing analysis regarding causation and the like in history. We will also be using this fine book http://www.amazon.com/History-Civilizations-Fernand-Braudel/dp/0140124896/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258506712&sr=1-3 as a supplement. Many history books simply fail to adequately address what I believe to be the most important element for understanding events, the intellectual background , the mileu in which the events are taking place. To achieve this ,I cut and paste with ruthless precision from among several sources. It is a monster to correlate the sections with literature etc when you are dealing with two or more spines but for rhetoric stage it seems a needed structure to our conversations.