Distant Reading

Today we learned about several interesting ways to analyze texts. In my own research, the best use I have considered so far might be culling city guidebooks for certain phrases or terms. Part of my project has to do with tracing the ways in which the antebellum urban South has been remembered. So I find myself perusing guidebooks looking, for instance, for references to African Americans or to slavery. Being able to do that sort of scan across a broader number of sources could be useful, were I able to sort out the technical aspects.