A lecture at Reed College in Portland, OR by the author of the book by the same name. Zinn shows us why he is our foremost historian of political struggle, of social movements, and of the forgotten or suppressed parts of history. He traces the origins of his work to the working class background and his first teaching job, at a black college in Georgia in 1956, where he and his students were among leaders of the civil rights movement. He tells us how the civil rights, labor, anti-war, and women's struggles became both the inspiration for and his subjects of his research and writing. He tells the stories of ordinary people who thrust themselves into history making situations, and how such struggles were ignored, suppressed, or distorted by both the media and traditional historians.