This document is published on this site in its original form. Though dated in several places, eg. by describing events of the 1970s as current, I do not feel it is my document to update. However, as it explains a difficult subject so well I feel that it retains its value. I only ask you to ignore the dating & see through to the points illustrated.

Most people know that in past centuries the world was very different from what it is now - different methods of production and means of transport, different ideas and behaviour, different political systems, and different social classes - slave owners and slaves, feudal lords and serfs, and now employers and wage earners.

What is less well known is what caused these changes and how they were brought about. It is the purpose of this pamphlet to refute the explanations offered by writers who have attributed the changes to divine guidance, or to the independent development of ideas, or to the role played by "Great Men", and to show what really happened.

The interest of the Socialist Party of Great Britain is not academic. We are not asking you acquire knowledge merely for its own sake. The Party's aim is to hasten further social development; to bring about a change from the present, capitalist, social system to a world-wide socialist system of society through which alone the interest of the working class - and indeed of all humanity - can be served, and class society finally abolished.

An understanding of the way society has evolved up to the present is an indispensable tool for the task.