Maurice Fitzpatrick offers his readers the testimony of a wide array of highly powerful individuals, the likes of which has rarely been assembled in a book on this subject before. John Hume in America: from Derry to DC is set to act as a companion reader to Fitzpatrick's documentary on the same subject, which aired across these islands as well as in the U.S.A. in 2018.

Fitzpatrick's text is based on a number of interviews with key Irish, American, and British actors. He includes testimony from the likes of former U.S. Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, and Prime Minister Tony Blair. Some of the most poignant interviews were with Hume's family, including his wife, Pat, and sons, John Jr and Aidan. The views of Hume himself feature throughout the text through previously recorded testimony found in oral history archives. Fitzpatrick uses memoirs, newspaper articles, speeches, and letters sparingly throughout to attempt to fill some of the gaps, although a more rigorous engagement with the secondary literature on this topic may have led to a more critical argument. For example, reflecting on Hume specifically the work of Barry White and Gerard Murray, as well as wider works on the S.D.L.P. by Sarah Campbell, Ian McAllister, P. J. McLoughlin, and Jonathan Tonge could add more depth to Fitzpatrick's text.

Critical scholarship on Hume remains relatively limited despite his dominant presence on the intellectual side of the peace process. The trope of Hume the ‘Derryman’ is one regularly engaged with in the public imagination. Fitzpatrick embraces this ethos, noting how he wielded significant influence in the debate on both sides of the Atlantic. Yet John Hume in America misses an opportunity to re-examine his legacy. Instead, it follows an S.D.L.P. great man narrative without reflecting on the impact of that story. For example, while Fitzpatrick does include the views of Lord Trimble few other attempts are made to discuss Hume's relationship with unionists and their contribution to the peace process. In the foreword Senator George Mitchell labels the protagonist as the ‘primary architect’ of the 1996 all-party talks which would ultimately lead to the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. Yet while there is plenty of merit to that argument, the text offers little analysis or critical thought beyond an excellently curated oral history testimony.

The lack of critical engagement with the S.D.L.P. narrative is an issue. For example, the ‘St Patrick's Day Statement’, introduced by the so-called Four Horsemen (Governor Hugh Carey, Senator Edward Kennedy, Congressman Tip O'Neill and Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan) in the late 1970s, is described as a ‘Washington institution’ (p. 57). Fitzpatrick argues that without Hume, such a statement and such a group as the Four Horsemen would not have been possible. Questions around how can we really measure their impact remain unanswered here. This overly deterministic narrative provides only a linear explanation of events: Hume goes to America, Hume brings politicians together, politicians act. For example, we as readers are to assume President Carter's famous 1977 statement on peace almost certainly came from Hume (p. 63). This paints Hume as a puppet master, the ultimate connector, rather than allowing for any individual agency from the others.

The author also offers no critical engagement with the methodology behind this book. While Fitzpatrick intends for this text to act more as a journalistic endeavour, coming from a scholarly perspective one feels that more could have been done to speak to wider issues. Beyond the conflict in Northern Ireland, Fitzpatrick does not address how other factors may have impacted on the relationship between governments in London and Washington. For example, where does the Cold War fit in to this narrative?

There is some analysis of the media's impact in spreading a message for peace in the north (pp 87–92). This interview content, while still offering a subjective view of these interviewees, engaging with subjects who might, one could argue, have less of a political narrative to fight for in carving out their legacy. Yet even here, engaging with the historiography on this subject would have deepened Fitzpatrick's analysis. Four security alerts occurred in Derry in January 2019. A towering figure of the stature of John Hume is needed in the city. Fitzpatrick's text offers us excellent array of American and constitutionally nationalist perspectives to choose from through his carefully sources interviewees. More scholarship on these centrists like Hume is required but it must be rigorous and challenge party myths.