Gaut taught European and Russian history at Saint Mary’s University in Winona until 2012 and has since worked as a historic preservation consultant. He has written several articles for “Minnesota History,” a publication of the Minnesota Historical Society, co-authoring many with his wife Marsha Neff.

Gaut said he gave a presentation in New Ulm eight years ago during the pre-draft stages of the writing, and said he has been working on his book for over a decade.

He said that today, over a century since the end of World War I.

“Many people find it hard to believe that relatively peaceful and well-mannered Minnesota was an explosive hot spot in this ‘war at home,'” Gaut said.

Minnesota historian Greg Gaut at the New Ulm Public Library talking about his recent publication, The War at Home. Here, he provides details of the Nonpartisan League. This organization emerged from the efforts of wheat farmers in the Dakotas and western Minnesota to gain leverage in their dealings with the Minneapolis grain millers. Photo by Peter Engeldinger

In addition to debate about whether the US should enter the war, Gaut said many other sources of tension created conflict among Americans, including the rise of socialism, Jim Crow laws, women suffrage and prohibitionism.

Gaut gave details of the troubles several New Ulm leaders faced because they had actively campaigned for neutrality in the war. Mayor Louis Fritsche, City Attorney Albert Pfaender, Albert Steinhauser, editor of The New Ulm Review, and Rev. Adolph Ackermann, president of Martin Luther College, were criticized by many newspapers as disloyal, or even traitorous. Gaut said Governor Burnquist moved to have them removed from their positions.

Gaut said his favorite part of working on the book was the epilogue, in which he detailed many personal lives of Minnesota residents after the war.

“The soldiers, nurses, and aid workers who return come back changed by the powerful experience they have shared,” he said. “Those who stay home, and live through the tensions and conflicts of the home front, are also changed.”

Gaut talks about the backlash that was built against New Ulm community leaders Pfaender, Ackermann and Steinhauser due to a meeting at Turner Park on July 25, 1917, where at least five thousand had gathered. Peter Engeldinger

Author Greg Gaut signing copies of his recent book, The War at Home. Photo by Peter Engeldinger