Annihilating the Hillbilly Redux: Appalachia's Struggle Against America's Institutions

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James Branscome

Annihilating the Hillbilly Redux

Name: Annihilating the Hillbilly Redux
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ISBN: 9798995932000

Appalachia's Struggle Against America's Institutions

James Branscome

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English

Appalachian Press Books
06 June 2026

Biography: general; Regional studies; Ethnic studies; Central government policies; Regional & area planning

In 1971, a young journalist from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Carroll County, Virginia, published Annihilating the Hillbilly - a manifesto against the stereotyping that justified Appalachia's exploitation. Half a century before Hillbilly Elegy put the wrong story in front of millions of readers, James Branscome was already telling the right one. Annihilating the Hillbilly Redux brings together five decades of investigative journalism by one of Appalachia's most consistent and credible voices, with chapters drawn from the Mountain Eagle of Whitesburg, Kentucky (where Branscome has been a contributor since 1973), the Washington Post, American Heritage, the New York Times Magazine, Business Week, Southern Exposure, the Daily Yonder, Cardinal News, the Kentucky Lantern, and West Virginia Watch. The book documents what others ignored: the deliberate impoverishment of a people and the systematic extraction of their wealth by industries, agencies, and institutions that claimed to be helping them. Its thirty-seven chapters cover the mythologies that justified exploitation, from John Fox Jr. through The Beverly Hillbillies to J.D. Vance; the migration crisis that has emptied the sixty-county Central Appalachian coalfield region; the Tennessee Valley Authority's transformation from New Deal idealist to the nation's largest strip-mine coal consumer; the Appalachian Regional Commission's structural underinvestment; and the data-center industrial complex now establishing itself on former mine land. Unlike many critiques of Appalachian conditions, the book moves beyond diagnosis to propose a serious policy framework for reversing the depopulation crisis: an Ascend Central Appalachia talent-attraction program, a contemporary Appalachian Homestead Act, and a time-limited Universal Basic Income experiment scaled to the region's challenges. The book closes with critical assessments of recent Appalachian literature, including J.D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy, the Appalachian Reckoning response volume, William H. Turner's The Harlan Renaissance, Charles B. Keeney's The Road to Blair Mountain, and Tom Hansell's After Coal. Praise for Annihilating the Hillbilly Redux: ""From Appalachian migration to hog castration, this book contains the wisdom (and humor) of a lifetime. Jim Branscome has been a guide, teacher and prophet for all of us who want to better know the eastern mountains."" - Bill Bishop, author of The Big Sort and co-founder of The Daily Yonder ""No other journalist has covered the Appalachian odyssey for as long and with as much insight as James Branscome. This book is a must read for anyone who wants to understand Appalachia's past and current struggles."" - Ronald D. Eller, author of Uneven Ground: Appalachia Since 1945 ""Appalachia is America's least understood major region. Jim Branscome has a deep knowledge of it, a firm independence, and an understanding of how the world works - and what it has done to Appalachia, and its unrealized potential."" - Al Cross, founding director, Institute for Rural Journalism, University of Kentucky ""He has told a story the 'established press' has, to its shame, neglected to tell. Jim Branscome knows the Southern Appalachians as few do."" - Harry M. Caudill, author of Night Comes to the Cumberlands, 1977

By: James Branscome
Imprint: Appalachian Press Books
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 36mm
Weight: 835g
ISBN: 9798995932000
Pages: 634
Publication Date: 06 June 2026
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

James Branscome has covered Appalachian affairs for more than fifty years. A Berea College graduate and a native of Carroll County, Virginia, he has written for the New York Times, New York Times Magazine, Washington Post, Business Week, American Heritage, Daily Yonder, the Mountain Eagle of Whitesburg, Kentucky, Cardinal News, the Kentucky Lantern, West Virginia Watch, and dozens of other publications. He served on the staff of the Appalachian Regional Commission from 1969 to 1971 and is a retired Senior Vice President of McGraw-Hill Publications Co. and Managing Director of Standard & Poor's, where he was instrumental in launching the first exchange-traded funds.

Reviews for Annihilating the Hillbilly Redux: Appalachia's Struggle Against America's Institutions

""From Appalachian migration to hog castration, this book contains the wisdom (and humor) of a lifetime. Jim Branscome has been a guide, teacher and prophet for all of us who want to better know the eastern mountains."" - Bill Bishop, author of The Big Sort and co-founder of The Daily Yonder ""No other journalist has covered the Appalachian odyssey for as long and with as much insight as James Branscome. This book is a must read for anyone who wants to understand Appalachia's past and current struggles."" - Ronald D. Eller, author of Uneven Ground: Appalachia Since 1945 ""Appalachia is America's least understood major region. Jim Branscome has a deep knowledge of it, a firm independence, and an understanding of how the world works - and what it has done to Appalachia, and its unrealized potential."" - Al Cross, founding director, Institute for Rural Journalism, University of Kentucky ""He has told a story the 'established press' has, to its shame, neglected to tell. Jim Branscome knows the Southern Appalachians as few do."" - Harry M. Caudill, author of Night Comes to the Cumberlands, 1977