Editing Anachronism (section)

==In academia==
{{See also|Presentism (historical analysis)}}
In historical writing, the most common type of anachronism is the adoption of the political, social or cultural concerns and assumptions of one era to interpret or evaluate the events and actions of another. The anachronistic application of present-day perspectives to comment on the historical past is sometimes described as [[presentism (historical analysis)|presentism]]. [[Empiricism|Empiricist]] [[historian]]s, working in the traditions established by [[Leopold von Ranke]] in the 19th century, regard this as a great error, and a trap to be avoided.<ref>{{cite book |first=Stephen |last=Davies |title=Empiricism and History |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |place=Basingstoke |year=2003 |page=29}}</ref> [[Arthur Marwick]] has argued that "a grasp of the fact that past societies are very different from our own, and ... very difficult to get to know" is an essential and fundamental skill of the professional historian; and that "anachronism is still one of the most obvious faults when the unqualified (those expert in other disciplines, perhaps) attempt to do history".<ref>{{cite book |first=Arthur |last=Marwick |author-link=Arthur Marwick |title=The New Nature of History: knowledge, evidence, language |place=Basingstoke |publisher=Palgrave |year=2001 |isbn=0-333-96447-0 |page=63}}</ref>