Who is Giambattista Vico from Marx for Beginners and what is their importance?

Giambattista Vico was a Neopolitan philosopher (1688-1744). He first proposed the idea that society or history passes through three stages, which ultimately correspond to the three stages of life. His stages of history included barbarism, feudalism, and the "new" state. The important part of Vico's theory is that he spoke of an evolution of society through class struggle, assuming that once society reached the third state the evolution would start over again with a new phase in a new evolution cycle.