The COST Action "Distant Reading for European Literary History" is a European networking project bringing together scholars interested interested in corpus building, quantitative text analysis and European literary history. It aims to create a vibrant and diverse network of researchers jointly developing the resources and methods necessary to change the way European literary history is written. Fostering insight into cross-national, large-scale patterns and evolutions across European literary traditions, it will facilitate the creation of a broader, more inclusive and better-grounded account of European literary history and cultural identity.