AEI’s Michael Shank and Jamila Raqib in Waging Nonviolence on America’s Struggle for Independence and the Role of Nonviolent Action

Published May 18, 2026

America’s struggle for independence and the role of nonviolent action
By Michael Shank and Jamila Raqib

This year, as the United States celebrates the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, there will be much attention paid to the nation’s origin story, its first founding steps, and the framers who built our first constitutional infrastructure.

In the celebrations that will surround America’s 250th anniversary this year, however, there may be less attention paid to the years leading up to the now-famous 4th of July in 1776.

That’s a history worth telling, too, especially now. The decade prior to the Declaration’s signing — specifically 1765-1775 — was pivotal and precedent-setting in the use of nonviolent action to gain freedom and independence. That’s a lesson that’s particularly powerful 250 years later: that the tools of nonviolent resistance work, they can win, and they’re worthy of replication.

There’s another lesson in here as well, that it matters how history is told. America, like so many other countries, has a long history of privileging violent narratives that reinforce the belief that violence is the most effective or even necessary path to freedom. American history books consistently highlight the mythology of war and violence.

It’s time to dispel that myth. As we wrote recently for the Richmond Times Dispatch, “despite American history books highlighting the violent aspects of the revolution, it was, in fact, a range of other nonviolent factors, economic forces and civic influences that led to the downfall of British imperialist rule in the Americas.” And, importantly, it’s these “key takeaways from the 1770s that can inform contemporary resistance movements and provide important correctives to a purely battlefield-centric national narrative.”

That’s why this year, as America celebrates its 250th birthday, books like “Before Lexington: Resistance, Politics, and the American Struggle for Independence, 1765-1775,” published by the Albert Einstein Institution, become even more essential reading. The book’s preface, appended below, gives an overview of what actually led to America’s independence. 

Meticulously edited by scholars Walter Conser, Jr., Ronald McCarthy, David Toscano and Gene Sharp, and painstakingly researched, exhaustively studied, and thoroughly cited and sourced, “Before Lexington” is free to read on AEI’s website. The editors’ interest in this decade of American resistance began in the early 1970s, when they were involved in researching the use of nonviolent action as a pragmatic tool of civilian struggle. They were interested then, as we continue to be at the Albert Einstein Institution, in how nonviolent tools were used by the colonists and how they can be repurposed today.

Short of reading all 994 pages of “Before Lexington” — though we recommend that, too — the editors’ preface below gives insight into how American colonists, in many ways, already won the war of independence, liberation and freedom before any shots were fired. And it’s this lesson that is so relevant 250 years later.

Take a look at what the editors had to say about this pivotal decade of nonviolent resistance. Written 40 years ago, it remains relevant today:

“The struggle for American independence has captured the attention of American historians since the beginning of our history as a nation. Since the time that writers first began examining the conflict, scholars have presented their interpretations of the events of the period, suggested reasons for their occurrence, and explored the significance of the events in America from the end of the Seven Years’ War to the Treaty of Paris. Beginning with the resistance to the Stamp Act in 1765, these studies typically highlight the battles of Lexington and Concord and the exchange of shots between British soldiers and American colonists. In these interpretations, the events between 1765–1775 are not significant in themselves, but rather are only a prelude to the war.

Our book questions this assumption and suggests that these forms of resistance — primarily nonviolent ones — pursued by the American colonists from 1765 to 1775 were of fundamental importance themselves for the outcome of the struggle for independence, shaping the growth of new political, economic, and social institutions which could sustain truly independent self-government.

In our work, we discovered a large number of events in American colonial history — boycotts, nonimportation, noncooperation, and protest demonstrations of many kinds — all of which could be described as examples of nonviolent action. Indeed, the incidence and successes of nonviolent resistance seemed so significant that we were surprised that the subject had received so little attention.

Although many scholars have described the decade in great detail, the richness and importance of the nonviolent activity was lost because of their emphasis on a seemingly inevitable rush toward war. This book demonstrates that the movement for independence was more complex than conventional analysis might have us believe.

Students of American colonial history are all too familiar with the many edited books in the field. Frequently in such studies, the articles are unconnected beyond a shared theme. This book is different. The chapters in this volume, most of which have never been published previously, relate integrally to one another and provide a complete narrative of the period.

Our contributors are highly respected American and British historians whose writings are well known and whose scholarship is of the highest quality. We recognize that no study is exhaustive or absolutely final. We realize that this book, if read carefully, is likely to spark scholarly controversy and argument. We welcome these discussions for we believe that such debate can clarify the issues explored in this volume and enhance the understanding of this critical decade in our history.”

Hopefully the book’s preface piques your interest enough to read more.

“Before Lexington: Resistance, Politics, and the American Struggle for Independence, 1765-1775” is a fitting tribute to our country’s spirit of nonviolent resistance — past, present and future. And it’s this history that needs telling, too. Because independence and rights can be won without violence and war. Americans did that then, 250 years ago, and they can do it again.

As we commemorate the 250th Anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence this year, take time to reflect on the events that preceded it. There are lessons for today’s civil resistance efforts. It’s past time we find them and make use of them.