 It is significant that Hook’s vindication of Marxism by reference to its scientific character paves the way for the refutation of Marxism when its predicted consequences are not verified in practice. Hook’s practical political involvement throughout the 1930s with the record of Soviet dictatorship as well as with the regressive oppression by the National Socialist regime in Germany provided strong evidence that his own predictions about the future of capitalism and socialism that had been derived from Marxist theory were not being verified by the historical events. Even more generally, the idea that there could be a “science of history” which would allow human prediction and control of historical outcomes was refuted for any open-minded observer of the facts whose vision was not blinkered or blinded by faith in a theoretical construction.