Abstract:
Amy Utter’s Journeys: TB and Other Tragedies in Rural America’s Heartland chronicles a young woman, devastated by a broken marriage in 1924, who searches for “Fun, with a capital ‘F,’” yet embraces her Christian fundamentalist beliefs along with her “Romeos.” Then comes the “Great White Plague” – tuberculosis. In a Missouri sanatorium she balances faith in her God with trust in 1930 medical science, until the end. The book, taken from her diaries, provides a striking background of the rural heartland of more than 75 years ago, and includes genealogical references to generations of Utter ancestors and descendants.