Who is John the Baptist from Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography and what is their importance?

John, like Jesus, is an important Biblical figure whose work and legacy are defined more within the socioeconomic context of the time in which he lived and less within the context of the Biblical narratives in which he appears. John, according to the Bible, was a kind of herald, a precursor to Jesus, foretelling his coming and manifestation as the Messiah and urging the people of Israel, Jew and Roman alike, to be ready for the Messiah's arrival. The difference between that version of John and the John of "Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography" is that the John of the latter was not necessarily prophesying the arrival of a specific individual. In other words, like other so-called "Messianic" prophets, he was saying "A Messiah will come," and not that "The Messiah is here." The latter, the author suggests, was a post-Crucifixion invention of the authors of the gospels who wanted to give additional weight to their theological interpretations of Jesus' life and work.