John Hume is regarded as the key architect of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. This book collects extracts from Hume's key speeches, articles and interviews, and adds a contextual narrative. The selected texts chronicle his entire career, covering his entry into public life in the early 1960s through the Credit Union, the Derry Housing Association, the civil rights movement, his first election to the Northern Ireland Parliament, the foundation of the SDLP, his influence over successive Irish governments, and the various initiatives aimed at ending the violence and achieving an acceptable agreement.