Chapter 3, Part 1 Summary

There are two kinds of coal. Gibbsville lies in the anthracite coal region. It is also a stronghold of Union labor. Five years before, in 1925, a strike turned out to be disastrous for the working people of Gibbsville. There was no violence, but the strike went on for so long that thousands of families switched to using oil burners in their homes. Once the strike was over, it was too much trouble to switch back to coal, so a lot of business was lost to the coal industry in Gibbsville forever. Therefore, what was a boom time for the rest of the U.S. in the late Twenties was not a boom time for Gibbsville, although many people in Gibbsville have money in 1930.

Chapter 3, Part 1 Analysis

The first part of Chapter 3 gives more information about the setting of Appointment in Samarra...