This engrossing book will have special appeal to economists, bankers, historians, and anyone fascinated by the growth of a basic idea into a major business.

Publisher Comments

Category: Banking & Finance This title is part of the Business Histories list. Of Interest: American Commercial Banking: A History  Bailout: An Insider's Account of Bank Failures and Rescues Full Faith and Credit: The Great S & L Debacle and Other Washington Sagas The Failure of the Franklin National Bank: Challenge to the International Banking System The Rise and Decline of the Medici Bank: 1397-1494 The Tumultuous History of the Bank of America Thrifts Under Siege: Restoring Order to American Banking

This is the captivating story of the Bank of America, still one of the world's largest banks, and the careers of the Gianninis, father and son. They began banking in San Francisco with the Bank of Italy, which catered to small farmers mostly of Italian descent. The father, Amadeo Peter Giannini, has been called the greatest innovator in modern banking. When the fire and earthquake of 1906 forced many bigger banks to close, he set up two planks on a wharf and continued business. By 1930 those two planks had grown into the Bank of America, and the Giannini policy of developing local agriculture and commerce through a system of strong branch banks had become a new force in financial history.

From the back cover blurb:

This is the captivating story of the Bank of America, still one of the world's largest banks, and the careers of the Gianninis, father and son. They began banking in San Francisco with the Bank of Italy which catered to small farmers, mostly of Italian descent. The father, Amadeo Peter Giannini, has been called the greatest innovator in modern banking. When the fire and earthquake of 1906 forced many bigger banks to close their doors, he set up two planks on a wharf and continued business. by 1930 those two planks had grown into the Bank of America, and the Giannini policy of developing local agriculture and commerce through a system of strong branch banks had become a new force in financial history. This engrossing book will especially appeal to economists, bankers, historians, and for each person fascinated by the growth of an idea into a major business.

From Henry Berry, Turnarounds and Workouts, April 15, 2004:

The Bank of America began as the Bank of Italy in 1904.  A.P. Giannini was motivated to found the Bank out of his indignation over the neglect by other banks of the Italian community in San Francisco's North Beach area.  Local residents were quickly drawn to Giannini's new type of bank suited for their social circumstances, financial needs and plans and aspirations.  Before Giannini's Bank of Italy, the field was dominated by large, well-connected, and politically influential banks typified by the magnate J.P. Morgan's House of Morgan, which catered to corporations and wealthy industrialists.

Giannini's Bank proved to be a timely enterprise with great potential far beyond its founder's original aims.  The early 1900s following the Gilded Age was a time of spreading democratization in American society with large numbers of immigrants being assimilated.  It was also a time of considerable industrial growth after the hey day of the tycoons such as Morgan, Rockefeller, and Carnegie in the latter 1800s.  Giannini's idea was also helped by the growth of California in its early stages of becoming one of the most prosperous and populous states. As California grew, so did the Bank of America.

Throughout all the stages of the Bank of America's growth, business recessions and depressions, and changes in American society, including increased government regulation, the Bank continued to reflect its founder's purposes for it.  In the 1920s the Bank of Italy became a part of the corporation Transamerica.  In 1930, the Bank was merged with the Bank of America National Trust and Savings Association, with Giannini appointed as chairman of the committee to work out the details of the merger.  In 1930, he selected Elisha Walker to head Transamerica so he could be free to pursue his interest of establishing a national bank with the same goals and nature as his original Bank of Italy.  But becoming alarmed over Walker's proposed measures for dealing with the pressures of the Depression, Giannini waged a battle involving board members, stockholders, and allies he had worked with in the past to regain control of Transamerica.  In 1935, A.P. Giannini's son, Lawrence Mario, succeeded his father a president of Bank of America, with A.P. Giannini remaining as chairman of the board.

The story of Bank of America is largely the story of A.P. Giannini: his ideas, his values, his ambitions, his goals, his personality.  The co-authors follow the stages of the Bank's growth by focusing on the genteel, yet driven and innovative A.P. Giannini.  The book reflects a blance of basic business material, such as stock prices, rationale of momentous business decisions, and balance-sheet data, with portrayals of outsized characters of the time.  Among these, besides Giannini are federal government officials such as Henry Morgenthau and Charles Stern, California's superintendent of banks in the early 1900s.  With this balance, The Story of the Bank of America is an engaging and informative work for readers of more technical business books, as well as enthusiast of human-interest business stories.

From American History Review, October, 1954 

"Employing bank records and other standard sources, the Jameses have written an accurate and interesting history of an important regional banking system and its complex role in the economic development of the twentieth-century California. There is not a dull page in the whole book..."

From Annals of the Academy of Political and Social Science, September, 1954

The authors have performed a difficult task with better than average success.

Marquis James, 1891-1955, was a noted historian, journalist and biographer. He won two Pulitzer Prizes for biographies and authored a number of books, some co-authored with his first wife, Bessie Rowland James.  The James' undertook to write this book for pay, with the understanding that they would have a free hand to find the facts and set them forth as they saw them.  The Bank of America gave them access to all its records and business correspondence.

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