One didn't have to be a farmer to sense an intimacy between the land and the towns of Goldboro and Newberry Township, communities in central Pennsylvania characterized by brick farmhouses, fenced pastures, and two-lane roads. The four concrete towers rising out of the nearby Susquehanna River, visible some seven miles away, were incidental to most lives in the area. Then, in the spring of 1979, when local farmers were preparing the earth for planting, the worst nuclear accident in the history of commercial power in the United States took place there, at Three Mile Island. This volume furnishes the reactions of residents of those two communities to the accident. The authors present unedited interviews conducted between 1979 and 1986. They analyze the transformation of community attitudes toward industry and government from complacency and trust to the assertiveness and cynicism characterized as the NIMBY syndrome - Not in My Back Yard. They argue that the mistrust and anger that followed the accident changed the way residents of Goldsboro and Newberry view government, technology, and private enterprise.