The Murray County Historical Society invites the public to attend its first Lunchbox Lecture of the season on Thursday, October 9th, 2025, in the 4-H building on the Murray County Fairgrounds in Slayton starting at noon. This month’s lecture will feature author and historian Greg Gaut.
Americans went to war in 1917 not only against Germany but also against each other. The controversial decision to send an army to France came during a contentious time when farmers and workers challenged the wealthy, African Americans struggled against Jim Crow and lynchings, women campaigned for suffrage, and millions crusaded against alcohol.
Greg Gaut will introduce his new book, “The War at Home,” which focuses on the lives of individual Minnesotans to tell the dramatic story of this period, when the North Star State experienced bitter polarization, nativism, flagrant disregard for democratic norms, and intense, occasionally violent, confrontations. The Minnesota Commission of Public Safety ruled the state with an iron hand during the war. Led by John F. McGee, the commission pursued a “loyalty” campaign against trade unions, the Nonpartisan League, the Socialist Party, and the Industrial Workers of the World. McGee’s most prominent adversary was Charles A. Lindbergh Sr., whom the Nonpartisan League nominated to challenge the governor in the fiercely contested 1918 primary. Although Minnesota’s home front experience was the product of a particular confluence of events and personalities, it raises issues about how democracy can give way to authoritarianism when economic inequality, anti-immigrant nationalism, and racism rule the day.
Gaut is an historian whose career has included two decades of teaching at a liberal arts college and a decade of work as an historic preservation consultant primarily preparing National Register of Historic Places nominations around the state of Minnesota. The cost of the talk is $3 per person or Historical Society members get in free. Attendees are welcome to bring their own lunch. Refreshments and light snacks are provided. For more information about this and other museum events, call 507-8366533 or email [email protected].
