past-and-present
Use when targeting Past & Present or deciding whether a social, economic, or cultural history manuscript fits this venue. Encodes the journal's fit, its problem-driven "big question" argument bar, primary-source and historiographical expectations, Chicago house style and double-blind norms, official-submission re-check, and desk-reject heuristics.
Profile →npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill past-and-present --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
# Past & Present (past-and-present) ## Journal positioning Past & Present, published by Oxford University Press for the Past and Present Society, is a flagship of social, economic, and cultural history with a defining **problem-driven ethos**: it favors articles built around a "big question" — a genuine historical problem whose resolution speaks to processes of social change, power, and structure — rather than a self-contained narrative or an additive case study. Its house tradition is comparative, conceptually ambitious, and willing to range across periods and societies when the question demands it; what unites the journal is the conviction that a particular episode should illuminate something broadly significant about how societies work and change. A meticulous local study that never frames its larger stake is a poor fit, however well-sourced. This skill is a **fit / venue-selection / re-framing** aid. It does not replace the journal's current submission guidelines. Before submitting, re-check the live Past & Present author instructions and style guide. ## When to trigger - The author names Past & Present for a social, economic, or cultural history manuscript and wants a fit/fram
- Journal positioning
- When to trigger
- Scope & topic fit
- Method & evidence bar
- Structure & house style
- Official-submission checklist
- Pre-submission self-check
- Common desk-reject triggers
- Re-routing decision
- Output format
What does the past-and-present skill do?
Use when targeting Past & Present or deciding whether a social, economic, or cultural history manuscript fits this venue. Encodes the journal's fit, its problem-driven "big question" argument bar, primary-source and historiographical expectations, Chicago house style and double-blind norms, official-submission re-check, and desk-reject heuristics.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill past-and-present --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills, a repository with 909 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.