Sharon Presley

Our purpose is to help you:
- become more critical about what you see and hear
- question your irrational assumptions
- strengthen your rational beliefs
- avoid beliefs traps that limit your options
- apply critical thinking in your everyday life
- encourage critical thinking in others

Dr. Sharon Presley has a Ph.D. in social psychology from the City University of New York Graduate Center where her mentor was Dr. Stanley Milgram, author of the classic study, Obedience to Authority. Her Ph.D. dissertation was a study of political resisters to authority. She recently retired from teaching psychology and critical thinking courses at California State University, East Bay in Hayward. ... Dr. Presley's practical book on dealing with authority, Standing Up to Experts and Authorities: How to Avoid Being Intimidated, Manipulated, and Abused, was published by Solomon Press on May 5, 2010.

Sharon Presley is the co-founder of the largest and most successful libertarian book-selling enterprise in the world — Laissez Faire Books. She launched the company in 1972 with John Muller to make hard-to-find books available to readers ... From 1972 to 1977, Presley was editor of the company's book review/catalog, Laissez Faire Review ... Presley is a founding member of the Association of Libertarian Feminists, and from 1975 to 1982 was its national coordinator. She also served as executive director of the nonprofit organization, Resources for Independent Thinking (RIT).

SHARON PRESLEY received her Ph.D. in social psychology from the City University of New York. She has taught psychology of women and other gender-related courses at California State University, Iowa State University, the College of Wooster, and Weber State College. Her published research includes a study of political resisters to authority, historical papers on women resisters, and a study of Mormon feminists. She is Executive Director of Resources for Independent Thinking, a nonprofit educational organization, and is working on two books ..

Daniel Rosenthal, Sharon Presley, Tom McGivern ed altri ruppero con la Youth for Goldwater Campaign per formare la Alliance of Libertarian Activists, che si venne a configurare come la prima organizzazione esplicita di attivisti libertari alla fine del 1964 alla University of California di Berkeley.

The following article ... was an attempt to reach out to women who were dissatisfied with other organized women's groups.

... "Libertarian feminists believe that all social interactions should be voluntary, ... that individuals have the right to live their lives in any manner they see fit as long as they don't initiate force or fraud," says ... Presley ... "Libertarians want to repeal laws, not pass them," Presley continues. "They are not interested in stopping people from smoking pot, having abortions, or from spending their money as they see fit. Libertarians just want to leave people alone." ...

A passionate libertarian writer, speaker and activist since 1964, Sharon Presley was the co-founder and co-proprietor, with John Muller, of Laissez Faire Books; and editor of their flagship publication, Laissez Faire Review, from 1972 to 1977 ... Sharon is also a professor who has lectured and written widely on scholarly themes. Her research includes the study of political resisters to authority, women resisters, and Mormon feminists ... As director of Resources for Independent Thinking, Sharon is fighting a battle for greater respect for—and more consistent practice of—the virtues of rationality and reasonableness.

Étienne de La Boétie was a French political theorist and author of the Discourse of Voluntary Servitude. He received his law degree from the University of Orléans in 1553, and the heady atmosphere of free inquiry that persisted there provided an inspiring milieu for La Boétie ...
People become used to servitude; once it is thrown off and the bulwark of habit removed, tyranny may be difficult to reestablish. The masses may not be willing, but a few clear thinking individuals may save it: "Even if liberty had entirely perished from the earth, such men would invent it."

By the 1970s only a handful of libertarian women and men spoke out on libertarian feminist ideas, its heritage seemingly forgotten. However Tonie (Theodora) Nathan (1923-2014), an Oregon journalist, changed that. In 1973, she founded the Association of Libertarian Feminists (ALF) in her hometown of Eugene, Oregon. At the Libertarian Party Convention in New York City in 1975, the national ALF group was founded. Its website came along in 1997. ... As ALF's Executive Director, I am pleased to report that ALF continues its activism today with a Facebook page, newsletters, essays, a blog, and a YouTube Channel, which will soon have new interviews.

Emma Goldman called her "the most gifted and brilliant anarchist woman America ever produced." Yet today Voltairine de Cleyre is virtually unknown even among libertarians. She is discussed only briefly in histories of American anarchism and is not even mentioned at all in the more general studies ...
[I]n spite of their personal differences, Emma and Voltairine respected each other intellectually ... We are indebted to Paul Avrich for bringing this remarkable woman out of her obscurity and displaying the blossoms of that "exquisite plant" in all their inspiring beauty.