| Refiguring the archive C Hamilton Springer Science & Business Media, 2002 | 555 | 2002 |
| Terrific majesty: the powers of Shaka Zulu and the limits of historical invention C Hamilton Harvard University Press, 1998 | 493 | 1998 |
| Mfecane Aftermath: Reconstructive Debates in Southern African History C Hamilton Wits University Press and Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press, 1995 | 273 | 1995 |
| The cambridge history of South Africa C Hamilton, B Mbenga, R Ross Cambridge University Press, 2010 | 114 | 2010 |
| Tradition and transformations–The Phongolo-Mzimkhulu region in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries J Wright, C Hamilton Natal and Zululand from earliest times to, 49-82, 1989 | 93* | 1989 |
| “The Making of the Amalala: Ethnicity, ideology and Relations of production in a Precolonial Context” CHJ Wright South African Historical Journal 22 (1), 3-23, 1990 | 84* | 1990 |
| The making of the amalala: ethnicity, ideology and relations of subordination in a precolonial context C Hamilton, J Wright South African Historical Journal 22 (1), 3-23, 1990 | 84 | 1990 |
| ‘Living by fluidity’: Oral histories, material custodies and the politics of archiving C Hamilton Refiguring the archive, 209-228, 2002 | 80 | 2002 |
| 'The Character and Objects of Chaka': A Reconsideration of the Making of Shaka as' Mfecane'Motor CA Hamilton The Mfecane Aftermath, 183-212, 1995 | 80* | 1995 |
| Ideology, oral traditions and the struggle for power in the early Zulu kingdom C Hamilton | 79 | 1985 |
| Tribing and Untribing the Archive: Preface C Hamilton, N Leibhammer University of Kwazulu Natal Press, 2016 | 69* | 2016 |
| Refiguring the archive A Mbembe, C Hamilton, V Harris, J Taylor, M Pickover, G Reid, R Saleh Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2002 | 61 | 2002 |
| Ideology and Oral Traditions: Listening to the Voices ‘From Below’1 CA Hamilton History in Africa 14, 67-86, 1987 | 61 | 1987 |
| Backstory, Biography, and the Life of the James Stuart Archive1 C Hamilton History in Africa 38, 319-341, 2011 | 50 | 2011 |
| Authoring Shaka: models, metaphors and historiography CA Hamilton The Johns Hopkins University, 1993 | 48 | 1993 |
| Uncertain citizenship and public deliberation in post‐apartheid South Africa C Hamilton Social dynamics 35 (2), 355-374, 2009 | 44 | 2009 |
| “Revision; Reaction; Re-vision. The Role of Museums in (a) Transforming South Africa” ERC Hamilton Museum Anthropology 22 (3), 3-13, 1999 | 41 | 1999 |
| Refiguring the Archive AL Stoler, C Hamilton, V Harris, J Taylor, M Pickover, G Reid, R Saleh Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2002 | 31 | 2002 |
| A positional gambit: Shaka Zulu and the conflict in South Africa CA Hamilton History from South Africa: Alternative Visions and Practice Brown, 287-308, 1991 | 30 | 1991 |
| “Uncertain Curature: In and Out of the Archive” CHP Skotnes Uncertain Curature: In and out of the Archive, 1-23, 2014 | 25* | 2014 |
