Python was created by Guido van Rossum in the late 1980s and first published in 1991.
There are two implementation of Python, the original one in C (also known as C-Python) and Jython, the implementation on top of the Java virtual machine. We will be using C-Python for the examples, but the two implementations are very close to each other (with Jython slightly lagging behind regarding new features) so that most examples should work as well using Jython. To install Python on Windows, just download the latest version from http://www.python.org and run the installer. This will install Python including the documentation and the little integrated development environment IDLE on your computer.
Here is a selection of books about Python. First one has to mention that the documentation which is shipped with the language itself it very good. The two most useful parts are the tutorial and the library manual, the latter sometimes being too terse.
Alex Martelli's "Python in a Nutshell" [MARTELLI03]> is a good description of the language including the newer features. The best introduction I have seen is "Learning Python" Lutz99>. The best reference is in my opinion David M. Beazley's (also known as the developer of the interface generator SWIG) "Python Essential Reference" Beazley01>. It starts with an introductory chapter which is sufficient to learn Python from scratch. If you have some old Python book and want to learn about the new features, the pocket reference Lutz01> is a good resource. There are also a number of books covering special Python topics such as GUI programming (the german "Python und GUI Toolkits" Lauer02> is a careful presentation of the most important GUI libraries), web programming, and especially the Python-based content management system Zope.
[Beazley01] David M. Beazley, 0-7357-1091-0, New Riders, Python Essential Reference, Second Edition.