This major autobiography is the account of one man and his remarkable life. Born in 1925, he was educated in sarajevo before qualifying as lawyer. He was imprisoned twice by the communist government of yugoslavia (1946-48 and 1983-88). in the second occasion, as a Muslim intellectual, he served five years of a 14 year sentence merely for his written word. In 1990, as his political party came to power with the fall of communism, alija izetbegovic was elected as president of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He stood by his people throughout the war of aggression against his country in the 1990s, leading his people with nerves of steel, living by his principles both as a European and as a Muslim. He signed the dayton peace accord in November 1995 and was re-elected to a three-member collective presidency in 1996. It was his principles, however, for which he eventually resigned his position in 2000, announcing that the international community was pushing things forward in a manner with which he could not live.