Besides Hillary Clinton, the biggest losers of the 2016 presidential election arguably were political pollsters. After the surprising Election Night results, that class of wonky math nerds came to be regarded by some voters as either incompetent or as a nefarious cabal of jet-set coastal elites—and either way, fit only to be ignored or scorned. This is understandably concerning to some of the math nerds themselves. The record must be set straight! Hence Where Did You Get This Number?: A Pollster’s Guide to Making Sense of the World, the new book from CBS elections guru Anthony Salvanto.

The book is billed as “an engaging, fast-paced tour inside the world of polling” that “shows how to look at the numbers the way the pros do.” Some people dismiss pollsters as quacks, Salvanto reasons, because of confusion about how and why they do what they do. His book is an attempt to change that, and maybe, along the way, to help soothe some of the nation’s partisan animosities.