Shell Games

Set against a backdrop of murder, intrigue, and industrial labor conflict in the early twentieth century pearl button industry, Shell Games graphically portrays one of the most important battles in the fight for safe and humane working conditions. Filtered through the thoughts and emotions of Pearl McGill, a woman who stood heroically against the injustices destroying the lives of so many around her in the shops and factories, this conflict vividly comes to life and underscores many of the concerns contemporary workers still encounter.

“Shell Games is a history of American labor through the eyes of the brave and personable heroine Pearl McGill. This is a story of friendship, romance, family, and community conflict, the story of an all-American girl thrust into a high stakes political mystery. Shell Games is history at its most lively and dynamic.”
—Kate Rousmaniere, Department of Educational Leadership, Miami University, Ohio

“The story of Pearl McGill's rise as an unlikely teen heroine for America's early 20th Century labor struggle is one of courage and passion. Through meticulous research, Jeffrey Copeland paints a vivid and accurate picture of what is arguably one of the most defining periods of Muscatine's storied pearl button industry, a microcosm of the world of American industry of the era.”