At six, he witnessed his father's murder. At 12, he regularly sneaked out to the waterfront at midnight. At 15, he quit school. At 30, he retired, a self-made man. Then the real work of his life began. In 1904, A. P. Giannini (1870-1949) founded Bank of Italy, the predecessor of today's Bank of America, to serve his ethnic neighborhood in San Francisco. Against a backdrop of earthquake and fire, anti-immigrant fervor, war, and the Great Depression, he broke every rule and tradition on his way to a showdown with Wall Street. This riveting story of an outsider with something to prove is an...

At six, he witnessed his father's murder. At 12, he regularly sneaked out to the waterfront at midnight. At 15, he quit school. At 30, he retired, a self-made man. Then the real work of his life began. In 1904, A. P. Giannini (1870-1949) founded Bank of Italy, the predecessor of today's Bank of America, to serve his ethnic neighborhood in San Francisco. Against a backdrop of earthquake and fire, anti-immigrant fervor, war, and the Great Depression, he broke every rule and tradition on his way to a showdown with Wall Street. This riveting story of an outsider with something to prove is an...