Economic Conditions, Economic Development, Economic Policy, Poverty

Includes Appalachian Regional Commission programs, community action efforts, unemployment, housing, and hunger

Ain’t No Grave: Stories of Life, Death, and Struggle in Appalachia [series; W. Va.].  2016.  Vice, 27 April.  Six stories (average 3,000 words) and photos comprise this series in the investigative journalism magazine, Vice: Introducing Our Series on Central Appalachia / Stacy Kranitz -- The Hard Times, Struggles, and Hopes of Addicts in Appalachia / Juliet Escoria -- Inside a Life-Saving Rural Clinic in Appalachia / Catherine V. Moore -- How Environmental Activists Are Fighting Back Against Pollution and Big Business in Appalachia / Jacob S. Knabb -- A Portrait of Coal Town on the Brink of Death [Boone Co., W. Va.] / Jacob S. Knabb -- Interviews with Self-Described “Rednecks” and “Hillbillies” / Stacy Kranitz.  http://www.vice.com/series/appalachia-life-aint-no-grave.

Alvarez, Raymond.  2014.  “Water Street Rise, Fall, and Renewal in Fairmont.”  Goldenseal: West Virginia Traditional Life 40, no. 3 (Fall): 10-15.  Urban renewal, 1830s-2014.

Appalachia: The Fifty Years War.  2015.  The Economist, 21 March.  1,175 words.  Includes county outline maps of the region showing: Poverty Rates, 1960, 2008-12; and Mortality Rates, 1968, 2010.  http://econ.st/19C1Wbi.

Appalachia Then and Now: Examining Changes to the Appalachian Region Since 1965.  2015.  Prepared by the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness and West Virginia University for the Appalachian Regional Commission.  Washington, D.C.: Appalachian Regional Commission.  Maps, charts. Contents: Executive Summary (24 pp.); Technical Report (180 pp.); State Meetings Report (65 pp.).  “This study...analyzes 50 years of socioeconomic trends, including poverty, income disparity, unemployment, employment change, population change, economic and industry mix, educational attainment, housing quality, health, transportation access, and telecommunications capacity in the Appalachian Region and summarizes the economic impacts accruing to the Region through ARC’s non-highway investments.”  http://www.arc.gov/research/researchreportdetails.asp?REPORT_ID=113.

Appalachian Regional Commission.  2015.  Moving Appalachia Forward: Appalachian Regional Commission Strategic Plan, 2011-2016.  Washington, D.C.: Appalachian Regional Commission.  38 pp.  http://www.arc.gov/images/newsroom/publications/sp/arcstrategicplan2011-2016.pdf.

Bailey, Conner, Leif Jensen, and Elizabeth Ransom, ed.  2014.  Rural America in a Globalizing World: Problems and Prospects for the 2010s.  Morgantown: West Virginia University Press.  705 pp.  Thirty-five chapters covering agriculture, natural resources, population change, diversity, and community, with many references to Appalachia.

Ball, Marilyn.  2015.  The Rise of Asheville: An Exceptional History of Community Building.  Charleston, S.C.: History Press.  111 pp.  Contents: Saving downtown Asheville: a gift wrapped for the future | Stone Soup: a lasting tribute to the power of community | MANNA Food Bank: feeding the hungry in western North Carolina | HandMade in America: creating a new paradigm for economic prosperity | River Arts District: a community of artists emerges from deserted remnants of a bygone era | Smoky Mountain host: we’re part of the state, too | The Great Smoky Mountains Golf Association: playing a round together | Blue Ridge National Heritage Area: widening the scope of regional partnerships.

Brosi, George.  2013.  “Fifty Years of Change in Appalachia.”  Appalachian Heritage 41, no. 4 (Fall): 8-10.  Brosi details changes to the region he’s witnessed since the 1960s and urgently advocates “that we consolidate the gains we have made, ...overcome our losses, and preserve the best of our core values and advantages.”

Burke, Kathleen, and Wendy Miller.  2013.  “The Impact a Professional Football Training Camp Has on a Small Rural Community” [N.Y.].  Pennsylvania Geographer 51, no. 2 (Fall-Winter): 3-22.  Cortland hosted the New York Jets training camp in 2010. Visitors spent $2.6 million in the region and generated $5.8 million economic impact.
Burton, Linda M., Daniel T. Lichter, Regina S. Baker, and John M. Eason.  2013.  “Inequality, Family Processes, and Health in the ‘New’ Rural America.”  American Behavioral Scientist 57, no. 8: 1128-1151.  “How will shifting inequalities anchored in poverty and race shape health disparities in a new rural America?”

Camp, Michael.  2015.  “Making the Quantum Jump: Local Power and the 1982 World’s Fair” [Knoxville].  Journal of East Tennessee History 87: 4-25.  Culminated decades-long efforts of city leaders to annex Knoxville’s suburbs in order to attract shoppers and business downtown.

Cheves, John, and Bill Estep.  2012-2014.  “Fifty Years of Night: The Story of Eastern Kentucky’s Continued Struggles 50 Years after a Country Lawyer Focused the Nation on Its Problems.”  Lexington Herald-Leader,series, 16 December 2012--April 2014  [Harry Caudill’s landmark 1963 study, Night Comes to the Cumberlands: A Biography of a Depressed Area].   Contents: INTRODUCTION.  PART 1: HARRY CAUDILL.  1. He brought the world to Eastern Kentucky | 2. The perfect man to write an angry book | 3. A nation notices, and help arrives | 4. Night comes to the chromosomes | 5. A complex life, a mixed legacy.  PART 2: COAL.  6. Coal jobs gone, perhaps for good | 7. Bombs and bullets in Clear Creek | 8. Out of the coalfield, into the courtroom | 9. Mine blast’s impact has lasted decades | 10. A crafts-and-cafés future falls short. PART 3: POVERTY, DRUGS & EDUCATION.  11. Many in Martin County ‘have just given up’ | 12. A drug-addled city hits bottom, tries to get clean | 13. Schools’ progress stymied by cuts.  Epilogue: Growing crisis spawns another effort to remake Eastern Kentucky.  APPENDIX: Harry Caudill bibliography | Anne Caudill: Harry Caudill found eugenicist’s plan dubious | Anne Caudill: Series ably showing E. Ky. promise, peril | How this story was reported | At 90, Anne Caudill talking to new generations about her family’s Appalachian experience.  http://www.kentucky.com/easternkentucky/.

Clark, Amy D.  2013.  “Appalachian Hope and Heartbreak” [op-ed].  New York Times, 3 August, 19(A).  799 words.  Big Stone Gap, Va.; closing of the Mutual Drug Cafeteria, the coal town’s corner drug store and community gathering place and inspiration for Adriana Trigiani’s Big Stone Gap novels -- sold to a franchise.  http://nyti.ms/15muNfd.

Compion, Sara, Brandon Ofem, Walter Ferrier, Stephen Borgatti, Patricia Cook-Craig, Jane Jensen, and Seungahn Nah.  2015.  “The Collaboration Networks of Economic Development Organizations in Eastern Kentucky.”  Journal of Appalachian Studies 21, no. 1 (Spring): 105-127.  Figures; map.  Data were collected through interviews.  “...we examine the patterns of collaboration between ninety-eight EDOs .... Our findings reveal that [EDOs]...only leverage about 8 percent of their networking potential.”

Dahlstrand, Katharine.  2014.  “Temporary Triumphs: John Wesley North, the Knoxville Industrial Association, and Reconstruction in Knoxville.”  Journal of East Tennessee History 86: 41-56.

Davis, Donald Edward, and Chris Baker.  2015.  “Fixing Appalachia: A Century of Community Development in a ‘Depressed’ Area.”  Chap. 4 in Studying Appalachian Studies: Making the Path by Walking, ed. C. Berry, P. Obermiller, and S. Scott, 88-118.  Urbana: University of Illinois Press.  Examines efforts by organized religion such as settlement schools, federal agencies such as TVA and ARC, and grassroots organizations such as SOCM, and KFTC.

Dieterich-Ward, Allen.  2015.  Beyond Rust: Metropolitan Pittsburgh and the Fate of Industrial America.  Politics and Culture in Modern America series.  Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.  347 pp.  Based on the author’s 2006 dissertation, “Mines, Mills and Malls: Regional Development in the Steel Valley.”

Dominis, John.  2014.  “War on Poverty: Portraits from an Appalachian Battleground, 1964” [photo essay; website].  Time Inc.  Thirty-six stark b&w images of eastern Kentucky families shot fifty years ago by Lifemagazine photographer John Dominis which created a national focus for the Johnson administration’s War on Poverty.  http://life.time.com/history/war-on-poverty-appalachia-portraits-1964/#end.

Draves, Ian.  2014.  “It’s Easier to Pick a Tourist than It Is a Bale of Cotton.”  Southern Cultures 20, no. 3 (Fall): 87-104.  Tennessee Valley Authority lakes; 1930s-50s.

Duncan, Cynthia M.   2014.  Worlds Apart: Poverty and Politics in Rural America.  2nd ed.  Foreword by Angela Glover Blackwell.  New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.  304 pp.  Includes foreword to 1999 edition by Robert Coles.  Contents: 1. Blackwell: Rigid Classes and Corrupt Politics in Appalachia’s Coal Fields | 2. Dahlia: Racial Segregation and Planter Control in the Mississippi Delta | 3. Gray Mountain: Equality and Civic Involvement in Northern New England | 4. Social Change and Social Policy.

Fausset, Richard.  2016.  “Feeling Let Down and Left Behind in Hard-Luck Appalachia” [Wilkes Co., N.C.].  New York Times, 26 May, 1(A).  2,408 words.  Anxious in America series.  “In a moment riddled with economic and social worries, an e-cigarette shop in Wilkes County, N.C., is an oasis for some young Appalachians.”  http://nyti.ms/1XUvYMF.

Feeney, Alison E., and Terri A. Hoover.  2014.  “Consumption Geography in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Consignment Shops, Thrift Stores, and Firsthand Clothing Outlets in Relationship to U.S. Census Demographic Data.”  Pennsylvania Geographer 52, no. 2 (Fall-Winter): 24-41.

Fickey, Amanda L., and Michael Samers.  2015.  “Developing Appalachia: The Impact of Limited Economic Imagination.”  Chap. 5 in Studying Appalachian Studies: Making the Path by Walking, ed. C. Berry, P. Obermiller, and S. Scott, 119-140.  Urbana: University of Illinois Press.  “The authors use Appalachia: A Report by the President’s Appalachian Regional Commission, 1964, as a case study, then present alternate economic development models being implemented internationally.”

Gabriel, Trip.  2014.  “50 Years Later, Hardship Hits Back” [W. Va.; War on Poverty].  New York Times, 21 April, 1(A).  2,416 words.  Slide show; video; maps; tables.  “McDowell County, the poorest in West Virginia, has been emblematic of entrenched American poverty for more than a half-century.”  http://nyti.ms/QyiHKt.

Gurley, Lauren.  2016.  “Who’s Afraid of Rural Poverty? The Story Behind America’s Invisible Poor.”  American Journal of Economics & Sociology 75, no. 3 (May): 589-604.

Hall-Blanco, Abigail R.  2013.  “Mountains of Disappointment: The Failure of State-Led Development Aid in Appalachia” (September 15, 2013).  24 pp.  Available at Social Science Research Network: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2326141 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2326141.  “In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared ‘war’ on poverty .... ,I find that the ARC has failed to achieve its goals for the region due to its inability to perform rational economic calculation and as a result of issues of political economy.”

Hardy, William E.  2013.  “Beneath the Gilding: Knoxville’s Million Dollar Fire of 1897 and Fire Safety Reform in the Marble City.”  Journal of East Tennessee History 85: 24-47.

Hartman, Ian C.  2014.  “West Virginia Mountaineers and Kentucky Frontiersmen: Race, Manliness, and the Rhetoric of Liberalism in the Early 1960s.”  Journal of Southern History 80, no. 3 (August): 651-648.  Topics include the War on Poverty, “journalistic coverage of poverty and unemployment in coal mining areas, racial ideology regarding the Anglo-Saxon identity of poor rural whites, and the 1960 presidential campaign of former U.S. President John F. Kennedy (JFK) in West Virginia.”

Hatcher, William, ed.  2016.  Special Forum on Sustainable Development (Part 1), Journal of Appalachian Studies22, no. 1 (Spring): 9-79.  This first of three special issues on sustainable development includes papers by Richard York, William Schumann, and Joseph Holland; plus essays by Mary Anglin, Dwight Billings, Silas House, Cathy Kunkel, and Ada Smith, compiled and edited by Steve Fisher and Barbara Ellen Smith.

Hatcher, William.  2016.  “Using the Asset-Building Model of Development in Teaching the Politics of Community Development in Appalachia.”  Journal of Appalachian Studies 22, no. 1 (Spring): 113-120.  Describes an undergraduate university course developed by the author.

Heinemann, Lindsay, and Markus Hadler.  2015.  “Resisting Economic Opportunities? An Inquiry into the Reasons and Motivations of Individuals Who Stay in a Socio-Economically Deprived Area” [W. Va.].  Journal of Appalachian Studies 21, no. 1 (Spring): 86-104.  Tables.  Twenty interviewees in Huntington and surrounding counties.

Hoey, Brian.  2015.  “Capitalizing on Distinctiveness: Creating West Virginia for a ‘New Economy’.”  Journal of Appalachian Studies 21, no. 1 (Spring): 64-85.  Place marketing; Huntington, W. Va.

Hogg, Amy.  2014.  “These Empty Buildings – It’s Opportunity” [Whitesburg, Ky.].  Daily Yonder, 15 May.  1,491 words.  “Summit City Lounge, the Railroad Street Mercantile and a handful of other businesses in Whitesburg have worked cooperatively to provide for community needs, breathe new life into a dying downtown, and inspire other entrepreneurs.”

Husock, Howard.  2014.  “A Connecticut Yankee in Appalachia: Alice Ely Chapman Wages a One-Woman War on Poverty.”  City Journal [Manhattan Institute] (Spring 2014).  4,025 words.  Ely Chapman Education Foundation’s “philanthropic work promotes Victorian values like self-discipline and persistent effort to the poor of Marietta, Ohio.”  http://www.city-journal.org/2014/24_2_alice-ely-chapman.html.

Inskeep, Steve.  2016.  “Appalachia Looks to Improve Its Future; Looks for Helpful Leaders.”  Morning Edition, 21 April.  View from Here series.  NPR radio.  Transcript, 1,337 words;  podcast, 6:42 min.  A conversation from Knoxville, Tenn., with individuals, including Chris Green, at Holly’s Gourmet Café.  http://n.pr/1qEIEdp.

Inskeep, Steve.  2016.  “A View from Appalachia: Living Below the Poverty Line.”  Morning Edition, 21 April.  View from Here series.  NPR radio.  Transcript, 1,303 words; podcast, 7:15 min.  A conversation with café customers in Knoxville (including Chris Green, Berea College), about coal mining, migration, politics, and more.  http://n.pr/1qEIEdv.

James, Ryan D., and Autumn C. James.  2015.  “Regional Income Convergence in Appalachia: Exploring the Factors of Regional Economic Growth in a Transitioning Economy.”  Southeastern Geographer 55, no. 2 (Summer): 164-192.  Maps, tables.

Kaplan, Esther.  2014.  “Losing Sparta: The Bitter Truth Behind the Gospel of Productivity.”  Virginia Quarterly Review 90, no. 3 (Summer): 118-135.  Closing of a lighting fixtures manufacturing plant in Sparta, White Co., Tenn., in 2010 by Philips Electronics.

Khan, Naureen.  2014.  “Barely Getting By in Laurel County, Kentucky” [“Hard-pressed Appalachian district has one of highest concentrations of food stamp recipients”].  Aljazeera America, 24 June.  1,735 words.  Photo gallery; table, “U.S. Districts with the Most SNAP Recipients.”  http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/6/24/kentucky-food-stampssnaphungerpoverty.html.

Kolivras, Korine.  2014.  “Blue Skies over Bluefield, West Virginia.”  Southeastern Geographer 54, no. 4 (Winter): 343-345.  “Bluefield’s urban boom occurred a century ago. The historic and regional presence of coal meant that Bluefield also has the benefit of being a railway town .... How might Bluefield resurrect its image?”

Krogstad, Jens Manuel.  2015.  “How the Geography of U.S. Poverty Has Shifted since 1960.”  Washington, D.C.: Pew Research Center, 10 September.  621 words, plus graph and county outline map.  “In Appalachia, the poverty rate remains above the national average, but has been cut nearly in half (from 30.9% in 1960 to 16.6% in 2010).”  http://pewrsr.ch/1LZgFv5.

Leebrick, Rhiannon A.  2015.  “Rural Gentrification and Growing Regional Tourism: New Development in South Central Appalachia.”  Current Perspectives in Social Theory 34: 215-234.

Lowrey, Annie.  2014.  “What’s the Matter with Eastern Kentucky?” [“Bluegrass-State Blues”].  New York Times Magazine, 29 June, 13-15.  1,507 words.  http://nyti.ms/TzJyYb.  “A Times news and data-analysis venture compiled six basic metrics to give a picture of the quality and longevity of life in each county of the nation .... Weighting each equally, six counties in eastern Kentucky’s coal country (Breathitt, Clay, Jackson, Lee, Leslie and Magoffin) rank among the bottom 10,” with Clay County last.  See also: Betsy Taylor’s critical response to Lowery’s article, “Speak Your Piece: A Journalistic Selfie,” The Daily Yonder, 28 July.  1,184 words.  http://www.dailyyonder.com/speak-your-piece-journalistic-selfie/2014/07/08/7462.  See also: Silas House’s response, “The Matter Is You Don’t Know What You’re Talking About,” A Country Boy Can Surmise (blog), 10 July.  2,433 words.  http://www.silashouseblog.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-matter-is-you-dont-know-what-youre.html.  (reprinted in the Courier-Journal, 28 July.  http://www.courier-journal.com/story/opinion/contributors/2014/07/28/knowing-eastern-kentucky/13282243/ ).

Lowrey, Annie.  2014.  “50 Years Later, War on Poverty Is a Mixed Bag” [cover story].  New York Times, 5 January, 1(A).  1,250 words.  Photos, graphs, chart.  http://nyti.ms/1cz1yn6.

Macy, Beth.  2014.  Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local-- and Helped Save an American Town [Henry Co., Va.].  New York: Little, Brown.  451 pp.  “Describes how the chairman of Vaughan-Bassett Furniture fought for his more than seven hundred employees...in the wake of sales losses to cheap Asian furniture imports.”  See also author interview, Fresh Air, 14 July.  NPR radio.  Transcript, 1,238 words; podcast, 31 min. 6 sec.  http://n.pr/U9C6Dr.

Maulbeck, Joanna.  2014.  “Poverty in Appalachia.”  Chap. 5 in The War on Poverty: A Retrospective, ed. K. Farmbry, 73-86.  Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books.

McDevitt, Bette.  2013.  “Norvelt” [Westmoreland County; 1936].  Western Pennsylvania History 96, no. 1 (Spring): 14-15.  One of many subsistence homestead communities built during the Depression, with Eleanor Roosevelt taking an active role. Norvelt is named for Eleanor Roosevelt.

McGreal, Chris.  2015.  “America’s Poorest White Town: Abandoned by Coal, Swallowed by Drugs” [Ky.].  The Guardian, 13 November.  6640 words.  Maps, figures, photos, plus embedded video, “Lyndon B. Johnson’s Poverty Tours, April-May 1964” (23:09 min.).  “In the first of a series of dispatches from the US’s poorest communities, we visit Beattyville [Lee Co.], Kentucky, blighted by a lack of jobs and addiction to painkillers.”  http://gu.com/p/4c8jk/stw.

McShane, Chuck.  2014.  A History of Lake Norman: Fish Camps to Ferraris [N.C.].  Charleston, S.C.: History Press.  122 pp.  In 1959 the Catawba River was dammed to create N.C.’s largest lake.  The transformation of farms into subdivisions affected Iredell, Catawba, Lincoln, and Mecklenburg counties.

Morgan, Danielle.  2014.  “From Old South to New South: Seeds of Industrialization for Chattanooga, Tennessee, 1863-1877.”  Journal of East Tennessee History 86:18-40.

Night Comes to America [editorial].  2013.  Appalachian Journal 41, no. 1-2 (Fall 2013-Winter 2014): 15-16.  Reprint of the article, “Message from Martin County: What’s good for E. Ky. good for U.S.” Lexington Herald-Leader, 21 November 2013.

Owens, Chris.  2013.  “Fifty Years After Night Comes to the Cumberlands: A New Approach to Growth in Eastern Kentucky” [Little, Brown, 1963; author Harry Caudill].  Now & Then: The Appalachian Magazine 29, no. 1 (Summer): 37-39.  The community economic development organization RAMP (Rockin’ Appalachian Moms Project) in Martin Co., Ky., asked 100 people what they needed and developed seven programs from this.

Pennington, Sara, and Randy Wilson.  2010.  “A Cooperative Approach to Renewing East Kentucky.  Solutions: For a Sustainable and Desirable Future 1, no. 4: 62-70.  “This article explores one part of the Appalachian Transition solution that can be ramped up in a short period of time.”   http://www.thesolutionsjournal.com/node/683.

Pitts, Leonard, Jr.  2014.  “White Poverty Exists.”  Miami Herald, 5 October.  3,700 words; seven photos by David Stephenson.  “The War on Poverty has brought little change to Appalachia, where towns such as Booneville, Kentucky [Owsley Co.] remain among the poorest in the nation.”  http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/leonard-pitts-jr/article2518087.html.

Roberts, Charles Kenneth.  2013.  “New Deal Community-Building in the South: The Subsistence Homesteads around Birmingham, Alabama.”  Alabama Review 66, no. 2 (April): 83-121.

Roberts, Charles Kenneth.  2015.  The Farm Security Administration and Rural Rehabilitation in the South.  Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.  291 pp.  Emphasis on Alabama.

Roberts, K.  2013.  “The Art of Staying Put: Managing Land and Minerals in Rural America” [Ritchie Co., W. Va.].  Journal of American Folklore 126, no. 502: 407-433.  “...deeding land, keeping track of oil and gas rights, buying tax property, and generally piecing together livelihoods”....“to sustain their lifestyles and their families in the place they call home.”

Ronceverte Eco-Community Plan: Water – Energy – Community.  2013.  Prepared for Ronceverte Main Street, Ronceverte, W. Va.  Alderson, W. Va.: Downstream Strategies.  24 pp.  “A multi-phased sustainable planning initiative may transform Ronceverte, West Virginia into one of the greenest small towns in rural Appalachia.”  http://www.downstreamstrategies.com/documents/reports_publication/ronceverte_eco-community-plan_final.pdf.

Sanders, Randy.  2013.  “An Appalachian Built for the Long Haul” [Nathan Hall].  Now & Then: The Appalachian Magazine 29, no. 1 (Summer): 32-34.  Sustainable entrepreneur Nathan Hall was recruited by Green Forests Work to coordinate reforestation of surface mined land through hiring unemployed miners and partnering with community volunteers and paid labor crews.

Santiago, Anna Maria.  2015.  “Fifty Years Later: From a War on Poverty to a War on the Poor.”  Social Problems 62, no. 1 (February): 2-14.

Schumann, William.  2016.  “Sustainable Development in Appalachia: Two Views.”  Journal of Appalachian Studies22, no. 1 (Spring): 19-30.  “First View: Capitalism Got Us into This Mess, and Capitalism Will Get Us out of It”....”Second View: Capitalism Got Us into This, Marxism Might Get Us Out.”  Schuman provides historical background on the theme of this first-of-three special issues and closes with Si Kahn’s “take on achieving such lofty goals.”

Shepherd, Nick.  2013.  “Lack of Jobs Leaves Pennington Gap Struggling to Survive” [Va.].  Kingsport Times-News, 3 August.  1,151 words, plus two video clips (2:02 and 2:07 min).  First of a three-part series. http://www.timesnews.net/article/9065704/southwest-virginia-town-battles-to-survive.

Shepherd, Nick.  2013.  “If Pennington Gap Is Dying, Drug Abuse May Be What’s Killing It”  [Va.].  Kingsport Times-News, 4 August.  1,009 words, plus video clip (2:06 min.).  Second of a three-part series.  Prescription drugs; Lortab, Oxycodone.  http://www.timesnews.net/article/9065758/if-pennington-gap-is-dying-drug-abuse-may-be-whats-killing-it.

Shepherd, Nick.  2013.  “Despite Town’s Problems, Some Pennington Gap Residents Aren’t Giving Up” [Va.].  Kingsport Times-News, 5 August.  892 words.  Third of a three-part series.  http://www.timesnews.net/article/9065808/despite-towns-problems-some-pennington-gap-residents-arent-giving-up.

Siegel, Fred.  2014.  “The Poverty of Environmentalism” [N.Y.].  Society 51, no. 3 (June): 258-261.  Failure of the ARC’s 1965 anti-poverty mission in upstate New York’s southern tier counties including Broome, Tioga and Chemung.

Smith, Fred C.  2014.  Trouble in Goshen: Plain Folk, Roosevelt, Jesus, and Marx in the Great Depression South.  Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.  213 pp.  “...chronicles three communitarian experiments .... the Tupelo Homesteads in Mississippi, the Dyess Colony in Arkansas, and the Delta Cooperative Farm, also in Mississippi.”

Steacy, Chad N.  2015.  “Constituting Urban Decline: Discursive Practice and the Critical Understanding of Abandonment in Sunbury, Pennsylvania” [Northumberland County].  Pennsylvania Geographer 53, no. 2 (Fall/Winter): 3-34.  “...entering its seventh decade of a slow but sustained economic and social decay.”

Sutch, Aaron, Jeff Simcoe, and Evan Hansen.  2014.  Using Solar PV to Create Economic Opportunity and Energy Diversity in West Virginia: Five Policy Recommendations.  Morgantown, W. Va.: The Mountain Institute, Appalachian Program; and Downstream Strategies.  15 pp.  http://www.downstreamstrategies.com/documents/reports_publication/solar-policy-white-paper_final.pdf.

Tallichet, Suzanne E.  2014.  “Got Coal? The High Cost of Coal on Mining-Dependent Communities in Appalachia and the West.”  Chap. 15 in Rural America in a Globalizing World: Problems and Prospects for the 2010s, ed. C. Bailey, L. Jensen, and E. Ransom, 279-295.  Morgantown: West Virginia University Press.

Tumulty, Karen.  2013.  “A Blue State’s Road to Red” [W. Va.].  Washington Post, 27 October, 1(A).  3,394 words.  “A frustrated and angry West Virginia has been cutting ties with its reliably Democratic roots.” “Political alienation....Dependence - and disdain....A culture of coal.”  Graphs; photos.  http://wapo.st/westvirginia.

Twiss, Pamela C., and Phillip J. Obermiller.  2014.  “‘CIVILIANS CAME SECOND’: The Impact of World War II Defense Plants on African American and Appalachian Neighborhoods in Pittsburgh and Cincinnati.”  Appalachian Journal 41, no. 3-4 (Spring-Summer): 284-309.

United States.  2015.  “Investing in Coal Communities, Workers, and Technology: The POWER+ Plan.”  From The President’s [proposed] Budget, Fiscal Year 2016.  Washington, D.C.: Office of Management and Budget.  5 pp.  Contents: Supporting economic diversification and job creation | Ensuring the health and retirement of coal miners and their families | Building new development opportunities and new jobs in abandoned mine land communities | Deploying carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration technologies.  https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2016/assets/fact_sheets/investing-in-coal-communities-workers-and-technology-the-power-plan.pdf.

Van Berkel, Derek B., Darla K. Munroe, and Caleb Gallemore.  2014.  “Spatial Analysis of Land Suitability, Hot-Tub Cabins and Forest Tourism in Appalachian Ohio” [Hocking Co.].  Applied Geography 54 (October): 139-148.

Weise, Robert S.  2015.  “Socially Relevant History: Appalachian Kentucky in the Twentieth Century.”  Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 113, no. 2-3 (Spring-Summer): 321-355.

Williamson, Kevin D.  2014.  “Left Behind” (Owsley Co., Ky.; cover story).  National Review 65, no. 23: 26-33.  Also published as: “The White Ghetto: In Appalachia the Country Is Beautiful and the Society is Broken,” National Review Online, 9 January.  http://www.nationalreview.com/article/367903/white-ghetto-kevin-d-williamson#!.  See also: Paul Krugman’s opposing op-ed, “What Happens When Opportunities Are Lost,” Truthout, 30 January, 574 words, plus graphs of Owsley County unemployment rate and population change.  http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/21507-what-happens-when-opportunities-are-lost.

Williamson, WV: From a Culture of Poverty to a Culture of Health.  2014.  Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (blog), [no date].  1,418 words, plus video clip (5:03 min.).  Williamson Health & Wellness Center; sustainable community development; one of six winners of the 2014 RWJF Culture of Health Prize.  http://www.rwjf.org/en/about-rwjf/newsroom/features-and-articles/culture-of-health-prize/williamson-wv-2014.html.

York, Richard.  2016.  Re-Envisioning Development in Appalachia: Thoughts on What Is Worth Sustaining.”  Journal of Appalachian Studies 22, no. 1 (Spring): 9-18.  In the opening essay for this Special Forum on Sustainable Development, York offers a working definition of the term.