A.P. GIANNINI: Giant In The West

A most complimentary account of the financial, Californian dynamo, whose rise to fame is well known in banking worlds. Native born, son of immigrants, Giannini started as a commission merchant at 12, helping his step-father, and built up a big business by his unrelenting drive. With the death of his father-in-law, he inherited a small bank, and the whirlwind was on its way. Fighting for branch banking, fighting political machinery, always growing and expanding, Giannini lived in tempests of financial and banking battles. Bank of Italy, the invasion of New York and Bank of America, spectacular moves and machinations, this records some forty years of daring, unorthodox banking procedure by a decisive, belligerently dominant personality. It is also the story of a clan, for Giannini's family was a part of the picture, and part of his plans, but it is especially the story of a money master. Controversial California phenomenon- of special field and regional appeal.