Historyspeaking topic

Medieval Europeans are assumed to have rarely bathed, yet public bathhouses were common; what really killed the habit was the plague-era belief that 'water opens the pores and lets disease in.' Doesn't an epidemic scaring people away from cleanliness, and making them even sicker, show that fear sometimes feeds the very danger we are fleeing?

Early modern fear of bathing and the plague

practice with this topic

Set the timer (5-30 min), take 20 seconds of prep if you like, start talking. Jot your thoughts onto the sticky-note board.