About Mark Baker

Mark Baker is lecturer (assistant professor) in East Asian history at the University of Manchester, UK. His focus is on modern China, including the history of war and urban history (the subject of his book Pivot of China: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674293816).
Mark Baker is lecturer (assistant professor) in East Asian history at the University of Manchester, UK.
Mark's website

NBN Episodes hosted by Mark:

Jennifer Yip, "Grains of Conflict: The Struggle for Food in China’s Total War, 1937-1945" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

November 15, 2025

Grains of Conflict

Jennifer Yip
Hosted by Mark Baker

How did China’s Nationalists feed their armies during the long war against Japan? In her new book, Grains of Conflict: The Struggle for Food in China’…

Xiaobo Lü, "Domination and Mobilization: The Rise and Fall of Political Parties in China's Republican Era" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

October 5, 2025

Domination and Mobilization

Xiaobo Lü
Hosted by Mark Baker

How and why did the Chinese Communist Party rise to power in the 1940s at the expense of its Nationalist (KMT) rival? In his new book, Domination and …

Xiaolu Ma, "Transpatial Modernity: Chinese Cultural Encounters with Russia Via Japan (1880-1930)" (Harvard UP, 2024)

April 5, 2025

Transpatial Modernity

Xiaolu Ma
Hosted by Mark Baker

Transpatial Modernity: Chinese Cultural Encounters with Russia Via Japan (1880-1930) (Harvard Asia Center, 2024) offers the first detailed account of …

Zach Fredman, "The Tormented Alliance: American Servicemen and the Occupation of China, 1941–1949" (UNC Press, 2022)

October 9, 2024

The Tormented Alliance

Zach Fredman
Hosted by Mark Baker

The Tormented Alliance: American Servicemen and the Occupation of China, 1941–1949 (UNC Press, 2022) explores the wartime partnership between China an…