Contracts during the Half-Century between Restatements

In May of 1979, as the sobering seventies drew to a close, I had the privilege of presenting to the membership of the American Law Institute the final chapter of Restatement Second of Contracts. The three volumes of that Restatement have now been published. I shall not hazard a guess as to how it will fare over the next fifty years. I would like instead to use the time we have together to reflect on what has happened in the law of contracts over the course of the half century between the two contracts Restatements- roughly 1930 to 1980.