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15 is seriously excessive, even for a popular field like 20th century America. I would work from that list and whittle down to no more than 8 by October. Really focus on those faculty members whose interests closely match yours. Only apply to those that you are excited to spend seven years in. As for contacting departments for visits, you're better off waiting until September since spring semester is way too crazy for profs dealing with the current round of admissions.
Definitely apply to some MA programs but preferably not history but maybe in religion to beef up your coursework. It is becoming very common for incoming history PhD students to have a MA in hand so know who your competition is.
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