itsevolutionbaby

It's definitely worth to take a look at the faculty of the Ivies too, and see if there is a good fit in any of them. They tend to have very good professors in both US and British history, as well in gender things -although with different focus, depending on the place-, so I'd at least explore their faculty webpages and the titles of past dissertations if they are available. Because of your interests in culture, media, sexuality, etc. it might also be a good idea to consider American Studies Departments. They tend to be especially interested in these kinds of topics, and I know for a fact that people in American Studies PhD programs work on projects that sometimes don't even relate to the United States, so your transnational or comparative US/Britain idea could perfectly work. From what I've seen, American Studies departments tend to be more heavy on theory and less committed to methodology and archival work, so that's something to consider. Also, I've seen people in English Departments do interesting work about the history of media, so you might want to look at these as well. Now that's of course a whole different beast (while there are differences between Am. Studies and History, courses are often crosslisted and a degree in one could very well land you a job in the other department, depending on your research), so if you are committed to being trained as a historian you might not like it that much.

I didn't realize that the other program at Stanford was in IR. In that case, that is also a huge door-opener: if you're not sure you want to do history, that MA will be extremely helpful for whatever you want to do. It probably all comes down to what it is that you see yourself doing in the future. If it is academic work as a historian of International Relations, the London thing seems great.

LSE is definitely a prestigious school with worldwide recognition. And I believe that their International History program, while not as well known as their Economic History one (arguably the most prestigious out there) is very, very well thought of. I think it has a lot of to do with the influence of Odd Arne Westad, who is one of the biggest names in International History and especially the Cold War. More generally, LSE, as well as many of the Colleges in the University of London system, are very prestigious. If you do a PhD there and work with a very respected adviser (if he is, he'll be well known in the US as well), you'll be in as a good a position as anyone for any job. (This is coming from someone studying in a History program in an Ivy League: recent searches have included as finalists recent graduates from English universities). Having said that, there's always a lot of tension between that kind of International History,which tends to be in dialogue more with International Relations than with local historiographies or other social science or humanistic disciplines, and the other subfields. Unless you are not sure you want to start a PhD yet, want to wait and see if you can get an offer in the States (but I'd say only places starting in University of Chicago or Columbia can be compared to LSE) or don't want to move to London, I'd say the LSE offer is extremely tempting. I'd rather be careful in thinking if I really want to focus on International History and not in History tout court, but the institution and the location are amazing.