1. Title: Iacocca, An Autobiography.
2. Author: Lee Iacocca with William Novak.
3. This book is an Autobiography.
4. Publisher: Bantam Books
5. Copyright July 1986
6. Pages: 357
7. Historical Background: His name when he was born was Lido, not really Lee. He
changed it when he had to go down South for a sales campaign. He thought that the
Southerners would like it better if his name was Lee. It worked fairly well too. Anyway,
His father was the first person to arrive in America. He arrived in 1902, at the age of 12.
His father went back to his birthplace, Italy, and married Antoinette. They came back
across the Atlantic. Except this time, his father, Nicola, was an American citizen. They
moved to Allentown, Pennsylvania, also where Lee was born and raised. Lee (Lido, Ill use
Lee from now on though.) was born on October 15, 1924. Lees father was a sort of
philosophical type of person. He always had an important lesson to tell his son. It usually
was great advice that just about anyone and everyone could use. His father once said that
When times are tough, be in the food business. No matter how tough times get, people still
have to eat. He was right. He had a hot dog food stand that stayed afloat during all of the
depression. Lee was in the Allentown public schools, as a kid. He was an Italian kid in a
place full of Pennsylvania Dutch. So he was harassed by a lot of kids. He never let it get
him down though. His father was always pushing him to be the best. His father was a hard
worker and came from a foreign family. Back then, most parents that came from a foreign
country always seemed to push their kids to do their best so they can have a better life
style than their parents. Lee ended up going to Lehigh for college. He did very well for
himself. Before he went to college though, he enlisted in the army. It was around World
War II when he did so, of course. But because he had Rheumatic fever when he was a kid ,
he couldnt go and fight. The doctors said it was gone. The army said it could come back
though. So they rejected his application. He went to Lehigh instead. Ford always took the
top student out of the top fifty colleges back then, for a study at Ford. They would get to
