Jo Guldi is Associate Professor of History, Southern Methodist University, and Director of the Digital Humanities Minor. Her publications include, as co-author with David Armitage, The History Manifesto (Cambridge, 2014).

• Introduction; Part I. A Ropes Course for Exploring the Territory: 1. Why textual data from the past is dangerous; 2. From fantasy to engagement; 3. Words are keys and words are barriers; 4. Critical search, a theory; 5. To predict or to describe?; Part II. The Many Windows of the House of the Past: 6. The many windows of the house of the past; 7. Of memory; 8. The distinctiveness of certain eras; 9. The measure of influence; 10. Of rock and fire; 11. Whither modernity; 12. What computers can explain and when to stop: a case study in the political history of climate change; Part III. Critical Thinking with Data Makes Stronger Disciplines: 13. A world map of culture, purged of bias; 14. The future of the art.

'An ambitious work that demonstrates how quantitative methods can inform the study of the past while also making a compelling case for how historical methods should inform the work of data science. Guldi outlines a middle ground based on “hybrid thinking,” where historians and data scientists can meet to think critically about how data is used and abused to understand the past and present.' Spencer Dean Stewart, H-Net