American contract law is messy and often contradictory. Even when the rules stay more or less the same, their application varies from court to court over time. The book helps students see the hard choices lurking behind what seem to be the simple rules of contract law and prepares them to hit the ground running when they begin practice.

While much material remains unchanged, the major updates are on interesting and important matters such as:

* unconscionability;
* form contracts printed in fine print or hidden in other ways (particularly in the area of computer programs); and
* the growing uses of arbitration to repeal the reform statutes of earlier decades.

In addition, based on the recognition that most law students are in their 20s, explanations have been added about such "commonplace things" as the Vietnam conflict, OPEC, and the consumer movement and other manifestations of Pre-Reagan politics as well as what were ice houses, dial telephones, and typewriters.