Trained in both economics and law, Ljubo Sirc combines the perspective of a scholar with his firsthand observations of the dangers of communist regimes. Born in Kranj, Slovenia, he participated in the Resistance and served in the Yugoslav Army between 1941 and 1945. In 1947, due to his political opposition and friendship with Western diplomats, he was sentenced to death. His sentence was ultimately commuted to twenty years in prison, of which he served seven, much of it in solitary confinement. In his various teaching posts since then, Sirc has been a leading expert on socialist economics and communist regimes.