As socialism became an increasingly powerful movement in the later nineteenth century, the Catholic Church sought to assure workers that organized Christianity had always been their friend. One of the most notable documentary icons of the period was the papal encyclical Rerum Novarum, in which Leo XIII attempted to articulate a set of industrial principles that would counter the claims of socialism. Furthermore, the Catholic Church has consistently claimed to be a major player in the diminution and eventual abolition of slavery.

In this book secular scholar and historian Joseph McCabe attacks these claims with his heaviest historical weapons. In a short and clear account of the development of the European worker since the days of Roman slavery, he sets out a savage indictment of Christianity and its industrial philosophy.