The fledgling thrift industry in the United States was populated with a few dozen small, cooperative financial “clubs” in 1850, but over the next century it grew to be the dominant provider of residential mortgage finance in the country. Early “Buildings and Loans” were generally unregulated as late as the 1890s and virtually untouched by federal regulation before 1930. But by 1945 the thrift industry was dominated by federally chartered Savings and Loans and served by a federal discounting facility and a federal deposit insurance program. By the mid-1960s S&Ls had matured into what appeared to be a stable, well-protected network of intermediaries. But during the 1970s and 1980s the industry was buffeted by inflation, financial innovation, and deregulation and then became one of the costliest train wrecks in American regulatory history. The story of the thrift industry in the United States is complex, dynamic, fascinating, and important, and has, for too long, remained untold. But no longer. In From Buildings and Loans to Bailouts David Mason provides a treatment that the subject has long deserved—a balanced and meticulously documented history that will serve as first stop for interested scholars and students.

Several other substantial histories of the thrift industry are available, but Mason points out that these were all written by industry leaders and insiders. He uses industry-produced source materials, but blends them together skillfully with observations, commentary, and assessment drawn from less self-interested sources. Mason also makes reference to the large, more technical academic literature that has investigated a variety of issues regarding the impact and performance of S&Ls in the modern deposit and mortgage loan markets. The goal, however, is not to summarize or assess these issues and debates. Instead, Mason provides a well-structured and readable narrative about the industry's origins and development that provides a rich context for more specialized research about the thrift industry.

Mason does so by investigating four broad historical themes: the evolution of the business practices of savings and loan, the development and accomplishments of the industry's trade group, the evolution and impacts of government thrift regulation and, finally, the role of S&Ls in promoting and fulfilling the American dream of homeownership. These four themes are woven together in a chronological exposition. The first two chapters, for example, trace the first century of development of the Building and Loan and its trade group—the United States Building and Loan League (USBLL). Mason shows in these sections how the American thrift movement was connected to a diverse set of influences—the working class movement, progressivism, social reform, and consumerism. We also learn about the prominent role that ethnic populations and women played in the early development of the industry. Much of the discussion, however, focuses on the development of the group of professional building and loan men who by early in the twentieth century began to forge the industry's identity and business practices under the auspices of the USBLL.

The focus of the book then shifts to the development of the relationship between the industry and regulators between 1890 and 1945. Most readers probably know that the institutional pillars of the modern S&L industry were created during the Great Depression—the Federal Home Loan Bank System (1932), federal charters for Saving and Loan Associations (1933), and the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (1934). But Mason treats us here to a careful, detailed and eye-opening account of the central role that industry leaders played in the development of national thrift legislation in the 1930s. The payoff is a clearer understanding of the origins of the close and sometimes dysfunctional relationships that arose among thrift regulators, legislators, the United States Savings and Loan League, and individual thrift leaders after World War II.

Mason reminds us of the great success S&Ls enjoyed in the 1950s and early 1960s when the industry grew and helped finance a historic boom in both housing and homeownership. But the S&L story is a tragedy, after all, and the final chapters focus on the drama of thrift regulation, deregulation, and re-regulation. Mason's account of the S&L crisis will disappoint readers who hope that the historical perspective will yield new insights. The treatment is balanced, well-documented, and comprehensive, but hardly innovative. Mason concludes that some type of deregulation had become inevitable by the 1970s because the industry that had become too protected and too constrained by federal rule and mandate. The failures of thrifts and the FSLIC during the 1980s, on the other hand, were primarily caused by “lax regulatory oversight and well-intentioned but misguided business decisions” (p. 259). The book ends with a short restatement of Mason's four central themes, and appendices that tell the story of one S&L that failed during the thrift crisis and a second that survived. These end pieces are interesting, but are not well integrated with the historical narrative.

David Mason has created a readable, insightful, and comprehensive history of the thrift industry in the United States. He also provides an extensive bibliography and meticulous notes, which alone are worth the price of admission. The reader should note, however, that Mason's narrative is impressive because it effectively connects the many pieces of a long, rich, and complicated story. More will be written about the history of thrifts, and From Buildings and Loans to Bailouts will provide context for it all.