I've nearly completed my undergraduate degree and I'm quite certain I want to go on to a PhD and go into the field of history, but I still feel like I'm floundering in the dark about the field itself.

I am Australian so naturally I am most keen to hear about anyone who can tell me about positions at Australian universities, museums, government work, etc., but I want to hear about everywhere in the world too.

There's a lot of American propaganda from WWII warning against the dangers of speaking about anything remotely related to a military operation, because the Japanese/Germans were listening and you'd get people killed. I.... Don't believe that. If you said loud enough for everyone to hear "on July 11th there will be an attack at Stuttgart" on a San Francisco rail car, and everyone on that bus told everyone they knew and so on, at no point along the grape vine would that reach The Japanese/Germans unless someone was actively selling information, and there couldn't have been that many infiltrators in America during the war, could there? I don't even see how wiretapping could be that big of an issue for the average John or Jane, who in hell is going to wiretap the entire civilian population of the US one switchboard at a time?

In the UK I can see it maybe more, but the only thing I would actually see as maybe a threat would be saying anything sensitive over the radio, which who would even be doing regularly enough to warrant telling them not to?

I know about the Spanish Armada - Spain still had as many colonies supporting it throughout the centuries and most of them were far less likely to challenge control than the British interests in China and India. Were they simply not as profitable as the British colonies? European competition for Spain was sparse in Latin and South America compared to all the European companies sailing about africa and asia. Not to mention spain had a more manageable distance on its territories. I know the answer is probably a complex one that considers the later Napoleonic era political climate of Europe, I just can't find an easy answer.

Is it because it was mainly in Europe? But so was WW1 right?

Were the right conditions (if there are any) met?

Disclosure- This is for an essay on the European consequences of introduced animals from the Americas.

I'm wondering if the Muscovy duck had a significant impact on the lives of the people of Europe after it was introduced as part of the Columbian Exchange.

What I know so far is that the Muscovy duck was introduced after 1550. Domesticated ducks were a part of life in Elizabethan England. But was it a primary/mainstream source of food, or did people prefer other meats? Other than its culinary use, did it have any other effects on Europe?

Is discrimination based on race a "newer" concept or has it almost always existed?

This is mentioned in one line of Kenneth Jackson's Crabgrass Frontier, but not explained.

I'm writing a novel and one of the central places it's set in is Krakow in approximately the 1720s. I have quite a bit of source material but there are some questions which I can't seem to find an answer to. Any help would be much appreciated. I can join a cult or sell my soul if you want to.

1. I seem to remember having read about taverns being placed usually outside the city borders as a feudal leftover. Is that true?

2. Was there impoverished szlachta (nobility) living inside the city, seeing as it was a regional center and a former capital?

3. How would the city guards enforce law at night? Was there curfews?

4. What was a somewhat decent equivalent of about a thousand dollars? I'm assuming 10 zloty/florins, but if you know better feel free to correct me.

5. What was a common punishment for a thief?

6. What was the literacy rate? Could an average artisan, like a locksmith or a barber, read? Would his sons be schooled by the church?

Plus if you know any interesting tidbits like local rivalries between communities, strange customs and so on, I'd love to hear about them. You never know what's useful. One scene will take place during a market day so especially anything about that would be great, but if you can answer only one question, even that would be helpful and I'd be immensely grateful.

I'm poor as a church rat and it's a wonder I'm not starving on the street yet so I can't give you gold in return but I promise I'll put your name in the book as long as it's not Thunderdick van Necrophilia (there are different time periods so you don't need to wonder about Haileys or Chads wandering the streets of 18th century Krakow either).

I'm not a native speaker and I'm slightly intoxicated so mandatory apologies for any grammatical errors.

The historian Ian Mortimer, in a piece for the guardian yesterday, mentioned "cults of mortification and philosophies of human wretchednes" in the context of the black death.

1348 The worst news year in British history was surely the year that the Black Death reached these shores. The previous year it had struck in Italy, where it killed 40% of some cities' populations in a matter of weeks. Gradually it spread through France, and by September, it had reached the south coast of England. When it was over, according to modern reckoning, more than half the population had been killed. People's confidence in God's providence was another casualty. Cults of mortification and philosophies of human wretchedness began to emerge. Nothing in the last 1,000 years of human experience comes close to the fear and shock of the disease.

What were these cults of mortification and philosophies of human wretchedness?