Because without understanding how human society since our remotest ancestors has been created through social labor working people remain prisoners of the capitalist epoch in which we live.Without knowing how our labor transforms nature how its the motor force along humanitys ongoing road we cant see beyond the class exploitation that warps every aspect of our social relations ideas and values.The dictatorship of capital hasn't always existed. Its a few hundred years old. Like slavery and serfdom before it capitalist rule had a beginning. . . and will have an end. Only the revolutionary conquest of state power by the working class conscious of our class position and conditions of emancipation can open the door to a future. One based not on dog-eat-dog capitalist exploitation degradation of nature subjugation of women racism and war. A world built on human solidarity. A socialist world.Thats what a long view of history helps us understand."--Amazon.com viewed April 19, 2022.