Bessie Rowland James

I'm quite surprised by how much I enjoyed this book, and how much I learned from it. Clearly a commissioned vanity history, the book nonetheless taught me a lot about the history of modern banking in general, of California in the first half of the 20th Century, and of Bank of America in particular.

One of the most interesting things to notice is how far the policies of the modern corporation of the same name differ from those of the founding institution. This is particularly to be noted in how the development of branch banking was noted as a way to avoid serving solely the interests of "big business" (like the Chase bank of NY, who strongly opposed branch banks), and to spread better service and access to capital to the "little guy."… (mer)