After 33 years teaching at Hope, Marc Baer retired in 2016 — only to turn right around and agree to serve as the interim Dean for Arts and Humanities for the 2016–2017 academic year. After a second retirement, he then chaired the music department as an interim, retiring for a third time in 2020.

During his time as a faculty member, he taught courses in British and Irish history, modern imperialism, the History Workshop (London Histories), the History Seminar (Britain 1870–1930), Introduction to Modern European History and a Senior Seminar (Exploring Faith andCalling).

In addition to his teaching and research, Dr. Baer helped organize the Hope College Veritas Forum and was the founding director of the College’s Pew Society (now named Klesis), which equips Hope students to consider and prepare for graduate school and university teaching careers. Between 2010 and 2016 he chaired the Department of History.

AREAS OF INTEREST

Dr. Baer's research focuses on the cultural, social and political history of Britain — especially London — since the late 18th century, and on Christianity in modern Britain.

His first book, Theatre and Disorder in Late Georgian London (Oxford University Press, 1992), uses the longest-running theatre riot in British history to unpack the relationship between theatrical and political cultures.

His second book, The Rise and Fall of Radical Westminster 1780-1890 (PalgraveMacmillan, 2012), is a cultural and political study of the West End of London between the French Revolution and World War I.

His third book, Mere Believers: How Eight Faithful Lives Changed the Course of History (Wipf and Stock, 2013), represents the first of two projected books on major Christian figures in Britain c. 1750-1950.

His fourth book, co-authored with Allison Utting, was published in 2020 by Van Raalte Press: Making Music: Hope College Music Department, A History.

EDUCATION

• Ph.D., history, University of Iowa, 1976
• B.S., history, Iowa State University, 1967

AWARDS

• Ruth and John Reed Faculty Achievement Award (2014)
• Mellon Foundation Scholars Program Mentoring Award (2014)
• Vanderbush-Weller Award (2001)

Grants

• National Endowment for the Humanities
• American Philosophical Society
• Newberry Library
• University of Chicago
• Michigan Council for the Humanities

Published Work

• Making Music: Hope College’s Music Department, A History, with Allison Utting, Van Raalte Press, 2020   
• Mere Believers: How Eight Faithful Lives Changed the Course of History, Wipf and Stock, 2013
• “Should Students be Encouraged to Pursue Graduate Education in the Humanities?” Journal of Markets & Morality 15, Fall 2012
• The Rise and Fall of Radical Westminster, 1780-1890, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012
• “King George III (1738-1820),” Encyclopedia Virginia, 2011
• “Mentoring,” Emerging Scholars Review, 1.3, February 2009
• Student Online Learning Center to accompany R. R. Palmer, Joel Colton and Lloyd Kramer, A History of the Modern World, 10th ed. (2006) and 9th ed. (2002)
• Theatre and Disorder in Late Georgian London, Oxford University Press, 1992
• “From ‘first constituency of the empire’ to ‘citadel of reaction’: Westminster, 1800–1890,” in London Politics, 1760-1914, Palgrave Macmillan, 2005
• “Political Dinners in Whig, Radical and Tory Westminster, 1780-1880,” in Partisan Politics, Principle and Reform in Parliament and the Constituencies, 1689-1880, Edinburgh University Press, 2005
• “Sir Francis Burdett,” in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
• “The Ruin of a Public Man,” in Sheridan Studies, Cambridge University Press, 1995