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Cyril Mango, ed. The Oxford History of Byzantium. Oxford University Press, 2002.
I recommend Cyril Mango's edition of the history of the Byzantine Empire. As one might expect, I will allow myself a reservation or two, but all in all, The Oxford History of Byzantium (hereinafter, the "History") is a very well-done book.
The History is actually a collection of articles on various time periods and aspects of the roughly eleven hundred year history of the empire founded somewhat unintentionally by Constantine the Great. It is 334 pages long, with 305 pages of text. The book is set up in twelve chapters written by several different contributors, which follow a general chronological order, starting with "The Eastern Empire from Constantine to Heraclius (306-641) and ending with "Towards a Franco-Greek Culture," which last chapter discusses the fact that Constantinople was not the last outpost of Byzantium to fall to the Ottomans (For example, Crete did not fall until between 1645 and 1669 A.D., and the Ionian Islands were never subjected to Turkish occupation).
Indeed, Mango expressly notes that one might, as Toynbee did, consider Byzantium not just a state, but rather a civilization,...