As someone who’s very uneducated when it comes to war in general, how did the battle last so long? Was the city just extremely massive? Did the soldiers retreat from the city to sleep and send another wave in during the night? How could a battle possibly last for that long?

High school: 3.98 GPA Community College: 3.7 GPA University: currently all A’s

Hello all! I’m a community college transfer in my first semester at a university. My end goal is to become a history professor, so I’m deciding whether getting a master’s first and then a PhD. I’ve done a lot of research on funding and how that works, so I know a master’s likely won’t be funded unless I work as a TA or something. Really, I’m wanting to know how difficult a history master’s is vs a PhD. One of my history professors told me that getting his master’s was really easy because all he did was read and write papers (my two strengths) and he didn’t have to worry about all the exams all the time. I was just wanting to know if this is universally the case for most people and if I should do this or go straight from undergrad to PhD. My main worry is that I’m not smart enough for a PhD, but maybe I am. I’m really not sure. Any advice or firsthand accounts would be awesome!

EDIT: For what it’s worth, I am in the USA and I’m mostly interested in 20th century US (and I’ve found recently I’m really loving colonial America too).

Note: Please don’t try to dissuade me. I know all about the job market, but this is 10000% my passion and I’ve never enjoyed anything other than history.

I'm curious about anywhere in the Empire. And regarding huts vs houses, I'm considering huts to be something tiny that's built with the intent that it'll be torn down and put back up again when it gets leaky rather than something built with the intent of being a permanent structure for generations.

What I'm looking for are transcripts of conversations or monologues from the working populations of England. Most of the resources I've found are of middle and upper class people in this period. Ideally I'm hoping for interview transcripts because then I'd be able to observe the more colloquial conversational language.

What I've been able to gather so far is the occasional quote here and there from coal miners but I've gathered what amounts to less than a few paragraphs worth. My preferred location of interest is the North East of England but I'm aware that this is a very ignored location in British history, especially with regard the working population, so ultimately I'd be happy with whatever I can get.

A very credible friend, retired businessman, shared this story: in 1945, right after Germany lost the war, he (age 8 at that time) was hiding in a Vineyard (northern Germany by the coast) with his mother, and other women and children. He remembers that the allied forces came in - the first to come in were Russian soldiers on horseback with sheathed swords. They raped the women there.. soon after, Russian soldiers with tanks came to town (downhill from Vineyard), and occupied his family home and that of others in town. He He recounts how when, his mother and his brother and him approach their own home, the Russians shot a machine gun over their heads to keep them away. History buffs: is there any record of Mongolians on horseback coming to Germany/Austria toward the end of WW II?

Why did the Allies only act against Nazi-Germanys aggression and not against Soviet Unions aggression against the baltic states, Finland and Romania?

And how did the lack of these "necessary" conditions change the nature of the revolutions and the subsequent governance?

Do we have any artist's renditions of what they thought the earth looked like?

I'm trying to find evidence of William the Conqueror's apparent invitation to Jewish lenders and merchants into London/Oxford.

Many secondary sources say this can be found in William of malmesbury... But I cannot find anything of the sort. I can find William Rufus hosting debates between jewish and Christian clerics... But nothing about an invitation or anything that speaks to motivation... Where are these secondary sources getting this idea of an "invitation"?

I’m curious as to how knowledgeable the Europeans and North Africans were of the size of the mongol empire that threatened at the time of its conquests through til it’s collapse. They would’ve known about China so would they have known that the same country that had conquered and ruled China was now threatening the holy lands and the Kieran Rus?