Every society that produces more than it consumes must answer two questions: who controls the work, and who keeps the surplus? For 250 years that argument — between capital and labor — has shaped wages, politics, violence, and the stability of nations. This 12-episode series runs the argument from the guild hall to the algorithm. The theorists get a fair hearing on both sides: Adam Smith, Ricardo, and Marx on labor and surplus value — then the rebuttal from the marginalists, Keynes, Hayek, and Friedman. Then the evidence: the factory system and the Luddites, the Great Upheaval of 1877–1894, Homestead and Pullman, the company towns of Ludlow and Blair Mountain, the New Deal that wrote labor's rights into law, the postwar accord when wages rose with productivity — and the great reversal after 1973: PATCO, offshoring, the fissured workplace, the gig economy, and now AI and the question of who captures the machine's gains. No side gets a free pass. The claim that history is a struggle over surplus and power is the thesis under test — and the verdict weighs what it explains against what it can't. The finale asks what the record says about managing the bargain well, from Detroit's treaty to Germany's works councils — and points to the next question: what happens when this tension runs on the oldest capital of all, the land itself. New episodes in order — start with Episode 1. Episodes: The Oldest Bargain — guilds, indenture, and slavery as the limit case The Labor Theory of Value — Smith and Ricardo to Marx's indictment The Rebuttal — the marginalists, Keynes, Hayek, and Friedman answer back The Factory Arrives — the Luddites, the Lowell mill girls, and "wage slavery" The Great Upheaval — 1877, Haymarket, Homestead, Pullman The Company Town — scrip, Ludlow, and the Battle of Blair Mountain The Deal — the Wagner Act, Flint, and Taft-Hartley's counter-swing The Accord — the Treaty of Detroit, and who was left out The Great Reversal — the Powell memo, PATCO, and the productivity-pay split The Fissured Workplace — outsourcing, the gig economy, and Prop 22 The Machine Question — automation, AI, and who captures the gains The Verdict — what the record says, and the ground the argument stands on next Subscribe: youtube.com/@LetsRethinkHistory?sub_confirmation=1 Full ReThink History catalog: youtube.com/@LetsRethinkHistory Narration is AI-generated from a researched, human-edited source dossier; primary sources are cited in each episode description. Like and Subscribe, it really helps the channel reach others.