This talk, building on Jordan’s 2025 book The Invention of Rum: Creating the Quintessential Atlantic Commodity, will present a new story of how rum was invented, made, sold, and consumed in the Atlantic world, and how those developments intersected with the American Revolution. He will introduce the audience to a commodity that itself revolutionized the Atlantic world in large part due to its ubiquity and affordability. He will then home in on various moments in the lead-up, course, and aftermath of the American Revolution when the market for—and meanings embedded within—rum shaped the age of revolutions.