What is presentism?

by madmissileer

I've seen a lot of comments on the various historical subreddits accusing one another of presentism. Though I have an idea of what it is, it would be good for historians to really clarify what presentism is, and why historians avoid it. What is and isn't presentism? When is it proper to use modern standards to judge the actions of people in the past?

Searocksandtrees

fyi, there have been a couple of discussions on this that can get you started...

and here are a couple of threads in this post

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