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CORVALLIS, Ore. - The unlikely mix of ordinary people who did most of the protesting, fighting, bleeding, dying and dreaming to forge an independent America is the focus of a lecture on Thursday, May 18, by UCLA professor Gary B. Nash.

His talk, "The Unknown American Revolution," is the final lecture in the American Culture and Politics series, sponsored by the OSU Department of History. Free and open to the public, it begins at 4 p.m. in the Joyce Powell Leadership Center in the Memorial Union on the OSU campus.

When Tom Paine, who helped shape the fight for independence, wrote of America's future, he succinctly described the opportunity by noting, "She hath a blank sheet to write upon." In his lecture, Nash will point out how that blank sheet was filled in by an unusual mix of people, including preachers, enslaved Africans, hardscrabble farmers, dockside sailors, disgruntled women and aggrieved Indians.

Nash has taught at UCLA for more than 40 years and is a founding member of the National Council for History Education. He is author and editor for more than 25 books and 70 book chapters and journal articles.