Python is a general purpose programming language that can be used for both programming and scripting. It was created in the 1990s by Guido van Rossum to address the need for a higher level language in the Amoeba operating system project. Python is widely used today for web development, science, system administration, and more due to its readability, object orientation, powerful libraries, and portability across operating systems. To use Python, one installs an IDE like Python 2.7 and then writes and runs code either in the Python command line or IDE.