Podcast Summary:

Podcast: New Books Network
Episode: Bruno J. Strasser and Thomas Schlich, "The Mask: A History of Breathing Bad Air" (Yale UP, 2025)
Host: Dr. Miranda Melcher
Date: January 13, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode features an engaging discussion with Dr. Bruno J. Strasser and Dr. Thomas Schlich, co-authors of The Mask: A History of Breathing Bad Air, a sweeping history of face masks that stretches from the Middle Ages to the COVID-19 pandemic. The conversation explores persistent myths, the shifting meanings and uses of masks through time, and the intersection of science, culture, gender, and politics in mask adoption and resistance.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Origins of the Book and Collaboration

• Introductions:
  • Bruno Strasser: Historian, professor at the University of Geneva with a background in biology and the history of medicine.
  • Thomas Schlich: Former medical doctor turned historian of surgery and medicine.
• Collaboration: The idea sparked at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, when historical expertise—biology and surgery—could create a broad view of the mask's history.
• Project Evolution: Started as an article for The Lancet, followed by another for Medical History, revealing a wealth of untapped material that demanded a book-length treatment.
  • Quote:

    "We discovered that there is so much material and so much to say that we have more than enough for a book." (Schlich, 03:32)

2. Busting the Myth of the ‘Beaked’ Plague Doctor Mask

[05:03 – 12:00]

• Key Reveal: The iconic beaked “plague doctor” masks were not authentic historical artifacts but rather satirical images from the 17th century onward.
  • Quote:

    "The very short answer to that is simply no...we came to the sort of surprising conclusion that the plague doctor mask did not exist." (Strasser, 05:03)

• Origin: The first images date to 1656—much later than often claimed—and were meant as caricatures mocking doctors, not as records of actual medical practice.
• Satirical Meaning: These images equated plague doctors with ravens, birds seen as negative omens, greedy, and harbingers of death—highlighting widespread public distrust.
  • Quote:

    "When a plague doctor came knocking at your door in the 17th century, he would send you to the lazaretto and where you would probably die. So it was really bad news...and that's the origin of this idea that there's a plague doctor wearing a raven mask. But it was never...a material object at the time." (Strasser, 09:17)

• Cultural Persistence: In the 19th century, the satirical intent was forgotten, and these images entered popular belief as historical fact.

3. What Did People Actually Wear? Ancient Mask Practices

[12:00 – 15:44]

• Actual Protection:
  • Pieces of cloth, often soaked in vinegar or scented with aromatics, covered mouth and nose to combat "bad air" (miasma theory).
  • Goal: Change the olfactory quality of air, not filtration.
  • Artistic cues: In old paintings and sculptures, people covering their noses indicated the presence of disease-ridden or decomposing bodies.
  • Quote:

    "They live in a completely different world, a world in which bad odors kill and where protecting yourself from bad odors means changing the smell of air." (Strasser, 13:01)

4. Gender, Masculinity, and the Mask

[16:20 – 19:35]

• Gendering of Mask Use:
  • Doctors, especially in the 19th century, rarely wore masks themselves due to masculine ideals; masks were seen as feminine or effeminate.
  • Modern echoes: Resistance among men during the COVID pandemic had historic roots.
  • Contrasts: In China, early mask resistance was stronger among women.
  • Quote:

    "They were too strong, they were too proud, they were too heroic, they were too manly, if you want, to wear a mask. And masks were associated with women..." (Strasser, 17:01)

  • Historical insight could inform public health messaging today.

5. Masks in Occupational and Urban Settings

[20:06 – 29:12]

• Factories:

  • Occupational masks designed as filters arose with the Industrial Revolution due to dust and toxic vapors.
  • Despite recommendations, workers rarely wore masks because they were uncomfortable and interfered with normal behaviors (singing, talking, spitting, etc).
  • Political Dimension: Advising mask use shifted responsibility onto workers rather than making employers improve working conditions—"a quick technological fix".
  • Quote:

    "The call for wearing a mask was just mostly a way of deflecting responsibilities..." (Strasser, 22:16)

• Urban Air Pollution:

  • 19th-century Britain saw widespread use of "respirators" to combat coal smoke and smog.
  • Epidemics of mask-wearing and corresponding advertising are well-documented but have been largely forgotten.
  • Example: The 1952 London smog prompted widespread (though officially acknowledged as ineffective) mask recommendations.
  • Quote:

    "He knows it's not going to be useful at all...but at least it might save his political life. And so there's a massive recommendation that people wear masks in 1952 against the smog." (Strasser, 28:03)

6. Surgical and Medical Masks: From Operating Room to Public Health

[29:33 – 37:06]

• Surgery:
  • Late 19th-century expansion of surgery led to concerns about wound infection—leading to asepsis and the innovation of the surgical mask.
  • First Use: Masks protected the patient (from the surgeon), not the surgeon.
  • Quote:

    "...this mask was not worn to protect the wearer, so the surgeon, it was worn to protect someone else, to protect the patient..." (Schlich, 32:57)

• Beyond Surgery:
  • Masks then used in tuberculosis treatment and eventually for population-level epidemic prevention.
  • Functional Confusion: Mask purpose became muddled, as masks designed for others' protection were recommended for self-protection, especially in COVID-19.

7. Military Masks: Gas Warfare and Cultural Iconography

[37:39 – 42:14]

• World War I:
  • Gas masks developed in response to chemical warfare; rapidly evolved as each side escalated gas and mask technology.
  • Arms Race: New gases, new protections—a cycle of technological escalation.
  • Symbolism: The gas mask became a symbol of evil, war's brutality, and later environmental protest.
  • Quote:

    "The gas mask became more and more of a symbol of the evils of war more generally...used as an iconic symbol of all the evils of war." (Schlich, 40:37)

• Postwar Attitudes: Scarred soldiers returned demanding respirator masks in factories—war experience altered public acceptance in peacetime workplaces.

8. Masks in Asia: Myths, Realities, and Orientalism

[43:06 – 47:13]

• Not Uniquely Asian:
  • Mask-wearing in Asia perceived as inherent, but historical trajectories vary—Japan alone incorporated masks deeply into cultural practice.
  • Imposed Practice: Elsewhere (China, Korea) masks were introduced via foreign (often Japanese) influence and often resisted.
  • Western Stereotyping: Orientalist thinking attributes mask-wearing to "submissive" or "effeminate" natures, which is groundless.
  • Epidemic Preparedness: More recent Asian epidemic experiences (SARS, H1N1) led to faster mask adoption in COVID-19—less about culture, more about institutional memory.
  • Quote:

    "...the only country on earth where masks have become really part of a national culture is Japan. And this country has really have a very specific and particular relationship with masks." (Strasser, 46:00)

9. The Spanish Flu: Forgotten Lessons and Visual Myths

[47:13 – 53:49]

• Limited Mask Use:
  • Contrary to popular belief, widespread mask-wearing during the Spanish flu was mostly restricted to a few U.S. cities (notably San Francisco).
  • Resistance: Policies met with sharp opposition, echoing COVID-era tension between individual freedom and collective welfare.
  • Images as Evidence:
    • Iconic photos of masked crowds often misrepresent reality; most people in most places did not wear masks.
    • Visual tradition: Single mask-wearers symbolize epidemic—regardless of reality.
  • Othering & Memory: Western image-makers also used photos of masked Asians to highlight cultural difference or make epidemics visible, not necessarily to document actual practices.
  • Quote:

    "We've all seen these beautiful images of people masked in San Francisco...if you look at all the other pictures taken...not a single one shows someone wearing a mask." (Strasser, 52:27)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Plague Doctor Mask:

  "These images were all satires...a way of mocking doctors...and for some reason, in the 19th century, we stopped understanding that this was a joke." (Strasser, 06:12)

• On Gender and Masks:

  "The gendering of masks had an old history and helps us understand what's going on today...there's nothing inevitable about how masks became associated with the feminine." (Strasser, 17:09)

• On Tech-Fixes & Political Responsibility:

  "Recommending masks is also a way of deflecting the responsibility for the health of the employees onto the workers themselves." (Strasser, 21:36)

• On Mask Symbolism:

  "[The] gas mask became more and more of a symbol of the evils of war more generally...then the gas mask became a symbol of other evil stories too, very often in connection with environmental pollution." (Schlich, 40:43)

• On Collective Forgetting:

  "One of the revelations of the book is also how quickly we forget past public health measures, and we seem to reinvent them each time." (Strasser, 28:54)

• On Orientalist Stereotypes:

  "The fact that we think in the West that Asian people kind of naturally wear masks is really kind of Orientalism...because there's nothing inherently Asian with masks." (Strasser, 45:16)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [05:03] – Mythbusting the ‘beaked’ plague doctor mask
• [12:00] – Real historic mask practices and miasma theory
• [16:20] – Gender and the mask: masculinity, femininity, Western vs. Asian perspectives
• [20:06] – Masks in factories and the politics of occupational safety
• [24:32] – Urban air pollution and forgotten mask-wearing in 19th-century Britain
• [29:33] – The rise of the surgical mask in medicine
• [37:39] – Gas masks in war: innovation, symbolism, and civilian life
• [43:06] – Masks in Asia: cultural complexity and Western misinterpretations
• [47:13] – The Spanish flu, mask mandates, and the persistence of visual myths

Overall Tone and Takeaways

The episode is lively, myth-busting, and rich with both social and medical-historical nuance. The experts challenge popular assumptions and provide a detailed, global view of mask-wearing’s evolving meanings. They emphasize how masks are never "just" medical objects—they bear the weight of gender politics, occupational safety debates, war trauma, and cultural symbolism. History, they argue, is essential for understanding present controversies and for shaping wiser, more effective public health policy.

Closing:
The conversation ends with each author previewing upcoming work—Schlich on the birth of modern surgery, Strasser on the history of disposable medical devices—offering glimpses into the continued relevance of historical research in today’s medical debates. For those interested in a deep yet accessible exploration of how a simple object like the mask reflects centuries of changing ideas about air, disease, and society, The Mask is a vital contribution.