James Branscome
Jim Branscome has been writing about Appalachia for over five decades in national outlets like the New York Times and the Washington Post, in local outlets like the Mountain Eagle of Whitesburg, KY, and recently in digital outlets like the Daily Yonder, Cardinal News, Kentucky Lantern, West Virginia Watch, and on his substack. He is from Carroll County, VA, a Berea College graduate, and a retired senior vice president of McGraw-Hill Publications Co. and Managing Director of Standard and Poor’s.
The Latest
The Data Center Rush in Appalachia
Big tech eyes coal country as AI demand soars, but rural communities push back.
The Alarming Depopulation of Appalachia’s Coalfields: A Quarter Century of Projected Decline
Demographic projections show signs of a regional catastrophe already begun.
Commentary: A Revised Appalachian Homestead Act – Reclaiming Land and Restoring Hope
“A 21st-century Homestead Act offers compelling advantages for political leaders…For conservatives, it emphasizes individual responsibility, property ownership, and free market solutions…For progressives, it addresses inequality, environmental restoration, and climate adaptation…Few things are more American than homesteading.”
Commentary: TVA Owes Eastern Kentucky Reparations for Strip Mining’s Role in Flooding
The Tennessee Valley Authority’s appetite for cheap coal flattened the mountaintops of Eastern Kentucky. It decimated one region in the name of helping another.
Review: Book Details the Overlooked Experience of Black People in Appalachian Coal Camps
William Turner’s “Harlan Renaissance” shows how Black Appalachians built sustaining communities in the midst of racism and discrimination.
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