David Birmingham

The 1848 Unification of Switzerland

David Birmingham looks at how the invented traditions of 19th-century Swiss history cemented a sense of national identity.

Published August 31 1995

Murder and Politics in Colonial Ghana; African Historiography; & Colonialism and Development

Three new books exploring African history and colonialism

Published November 1 1994

A World on the Move: The Portuguese in Africa, Asia and America 1415-1808

A.J.R. Russell-Wood

Published May 31 1993

Gruyere's Cheesemakers

David Birmingham draws on the private papers of an 18th-century Swiss cheese farmer to recreate a world whose business sophistication and economic arrangements cut across the context of the rustic joys of an Alpine lifestyle.

Published February 1 1991

Portugal's Impact on Africa

Bartholomew Dias' voyage to the Cape of Good Hope in the late 15th century marked the apex of an extraordinary Portuguese expansion overseas and the start of a fateful European impact on South Africa.

Published May 31 1988

History and Human Rights

David Birmingham reviews the historical dimensions of international definitions of human rights

Published March 1 1988

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Lords of the Northern Forest

The Hudson's Bay Company was one of the central forces moulding the development of the vast tracts of land that today are Canada - but as Barry Gough explains here, the circumstances of its launch in 1670 also reveal much about the commercial forces, personalities and rivalries of Restoration England.