Dr. Terry Parssinen of UT’s Department of History presented to Honors students on the history of the cigarette. As he detailed, cigarettes were originally seen as a cheaper alternative to other forms of tobacco consumption (e.g., pipes, cigars, etc.). Over time, primarily through marketing and demand creation by large corporations, cigarettes became the most popular method of consuming tobacco both in the US and UK. Dr. Parssinen talked about tobacco consumption up through the present and noted that smoking cigarettes is down from its peak near 60% to about 13% in the US today.
Honors Symposium – Terry Parssinen
