In this offering, the editors are joined by other leading contracts scholars in placing the major cases in contract law in their historical and cultural context. Each of the 11 short and readily accessible chapters provides newly uncovered facts about and insights into the cases that lie at the core of the first-year contracts class. Long-standing puzzles are answered and these answers in turn are linked to the larger political and social forces at work, demonstrating how these forces have shaped the evolution of contract law.