Presumably, it has never been a good time for the humanities. Perhaps because it is simply in the nature of these disciplines to find themselves perpetually in crisis, lagging behind the times, dragging their leaden feet made out of indelible words, asking for more and more time in a civilization perpetually in a rush. They are constantly on the edge of a precipice, but we cannot deny that, while they awkwardly balance on the edge, they do enjoy magnificent views. After all, our fields do not thrive on security, on solid facts, on controlled experiments with measurable outcomes.

How should we use intellectual history to inform our thinking about freedom in the advent of digital technologies? Quentin Skinner argues that the prevalent liberal idiom is unable to address the political challenges in the world of big tech.

Thousands of Chinese migrants were recruited to work side by side with African Americans on Louisiana’s sugar plantations after the Civil War. Though now a largely forgotten episode in history, their presence in sugar production helped justify racial exclusion after the abolition of slavery.

Brault examines the promise of data as the opportunity to examine methods, to do something new and to vary methods, to scale claims and the type and amount of evidence presented to substantiate them, and to deepen and complicate arguments.

Jessica Otis from George Mason University and Dagomar Degroot from Georgetown University discuss the intricate relationship between catastrophe and data through early modern sources.

In a conversation with our editor, Matthew Warner and Nichole Nomura reflect on their work at the Stanford Literary Lab, the importance of collaboration and technical skills, and the future of the digital humanities curriculum.