. . [A]ny history that deals with the efforts of the populace to defend itself from the abuses of wealth and tyranny is people's history . . . A people's history should be not only an account of popular struggle against oppression but an exposé of the -people's history that has prevailed among generations of mainstream historians. It should be a critical history about a people's , those who propagated an elitist ideology and a loathing of the common people that distorts the historical record down to this day.