Recommended readings in Catholic history

1) The early Church and the Patristic age: 33-450AD [The Church grows from obscurity to become the dominant religion in Rome.  The orthodox creed is ironed out amid numerous heresies and schisms.]

• The Early Church by Henry Chadwick
• The Rise of Christianity by Rodney Stark
• The Spirit of Early Christian Thought by Robert Louis Wilken

2) The Dark Ages: 450-1000AD [The Roman empire disappears in the West, and the Church forges a new civilization.]

• The Making of Europe by Christopher Dawson
• The Rise of Western Christendom by Peter Brown

3) The High Middle Ages: 1000-1300AD [The Church asserts her independence.  The clash with secular powers.  Universities and scholasticism.  The crusades.]

• The Papal Monarchy by Colin Morris
• Religion and the Rise of Western Culture by Christopher Dawson
• A Concise History of the Crusades by Thomas Madden
• Inquisition by Edward Peters
• The Spirit of Medieval Philosophy by Etienne Gilson

4) The Renaissance: 1300-1500AD [The Great Schism.  Conciliarism and the corruption it fostered.  The flowering of Italian civic culture.  The worldly popes.]

• haven’t found any particularly good books on this era yet

5) The counter-reformation: 1500-1800AD [Trent and the reform of the clergy.  The wars of religion.  Missionary efforts throughout the world.]

• The Refashioning of Catholicism, 1450-1700 by Robert Bireley
• The Spiritual Conquest of Mexico by Robert Ricard
• The Lost Paradise:  an account of the Jesuits in Paraguay by Philip Caraman

6) The battle with liberalism: 1800-1960AD [Enlightenment, Revolution, persecution.  The secular powers embrace godlessness, but the Church holds firm.]

• The Popes and the European Revolution by Owen Chadwick
• Prosperity and Plunder:  European Catholic Monastaries in the Age of Revolution, 1650-1815 by Derek Beales
• The French Revolution and the Church by John McManners
• A History of the Popes, 1830-1914 by Owen Chadwick
• Religion and the People of Western Europe 1789-1989 by Hugh McLeod
• Earthly Powers by Michael Burleigh
• A Fight for God by Henri Daniel-Rops
• The Catholic Martyrs of the Twentieth Century by Robert Royal
• The Cristero Rebellion by Jean Meyer
• The Spanish Civil War as a Religious Tragedy by Jose Sanchez
• The Vatican in the Age of Dictators, 1922-1945 by Anthony Rhodes

7) Debacle: 1960- [Surrender, betrayal, heresy, apostasy, hedonism, ruin.]

• The Desolate City by Anne Roche Muggeridge