Hi Everyone,
I hope that this is ok to post this here - I need some advice in this area and would really appreciate some feedback from professional historians.
I am from the UK and my background is almost completely within archaeology. I have a undergraduate degree in archaeology (although I did take some modules on ancient Greece and Rome), and a Masters in Mycenaean and Minoan archaeology. I learnt Classical Latin at university and am fairly good with languages. I work as an archaeologist in England and have been doing this for 5 years.
Archaeology is a good job and I am privileged to work within the profession, but in my opinion there are significant problems (which I won't go into) with it that make me unwilling to devote my professional life to it. My real love has always been history.
My real passion is in history, and I would like to change the course of my career and start a PhD in a historical subject with the ultimate aim of being an academic. However, as I have not studied history I am a bit lost as to where to begin in terms of a research question. I do not know any area of history well enough to identify a gap in the current research where I can produce some independent work. This isn't helped by the fact that I have such broad interest in different historical areas which means I sometimes lack focus. My primary areas of interest are the Feudal revolution in Europe and the different ways different states developed, the politics and wars of 18th century Europe, French revolution, WW1, WW2, medieval England/Britain.... Ancient Greece and Rome... But really anything.
A second Masters is not really an option, due to the (extortionate!) cost within the UK. I could consider within an EU country as some are very cheap (or free), but this for me would be a Plan B as I'm not getting any younger.
So, my questions are:
Thank you very much for reading this and considering my questions
There's no way for anyone on here to "give" you a PhD topic or good research question. These have to be tailored to your specific interests and need to come from within. So you need to dive into some books and really decide what it is you like to work on, and then read around enough so you have a sense of what the areas are. You don't have to perfectly identify the "research question" when you start, but you do want a fairly good idea of what it is you like working on and find interesting, so you can structure your inquiry appropriate. "Really anything" is far too broad to be useful — you need to just commit to something.
As for making the transition: it sounds like you need to do more reading. You can get access to a library, presumably. Use this to get a few books that are on topics you find interesting, and dive into them. You don't need a second masters. You need to put in the work.