Since the early 1900s, Monterey was known for its fishing, mostly for salmon and the abalone that was plentiful in Monterey Bay. The migration of the Sicilian Italian community is credited for reaping what was called the "Silver Harvest." The Silver Harvest is the name that was given to the fishing of sardines in Monterey, which mostly was done by the Sicilian Italians who established the working fabric in the sardine industry for nearly five decades. Most of that generation is gone, and only a few are memorialized in books. It is this author's attempt to capture the working class that made Monterey the "Sardine Capital of the World."

Monterey, CA is the Sardine Capital of the World, thanks to Italian immigrants who grew a booming fishing industry in the early 1900s. The Italian Heritage Society of the Monterey Peninsula presents 75 stories about these fisherman and their families.

This book examines American public culture and the means by which communities in the U.S. reconstruct the past and reinterpret the present in the development of tourism. Norkunas shows how public culture is not confined to just museums or monuments, but can be constructed on many different levels and in different settings, such as community ethnicity, natural setting (environment), literary landscape, and history. In her case study of Monterey, the author explores the particular ideologies that prompt the community to represent itself in tourism, and that also act to legitimate the current social structure.

Loretta Baldassar is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Sociology at the University of Western Australia. --