Books: Masters of Battle - Taj Mahal - The Death of Captain Cook

MASTERS OF BATTLE BY TERRY BRIGHTON (Viking, £25)

WHILE the Second World War raged in the West, another, slightly less epic, struggle was taking place as three great military egos slugged it out. This lively study views the unfolding conflict through a prism of professional rivalry; "through the mutual respect of the arch-enemies Monty and Rommel, and the mutual animosity of the allies Monty and Patton". "Great Men" history may no longer be the thing but, as Brighton brilliantly shows, key figures can still influence events – albeit often in their pettier, more unheroic aspects.

TAJ MAHAL BY GILES TILLOTSON(Profile, £15.99)

THERE was always more to the Taj than love. For Tillotson, it's as much a monument to Mughal glory. And to the West's uneasy relationship with an aesthetic beyond its own, a reaction half-ecstatic, half-uncomprehending. Compliments to the Taj's "feminine" allure were generally backhanded, betraying an assumption that Asia was a place of unmanly luxury and decadence. India, meanwhile, has had its own difficulties to wrestle with, most notably the fact that its most universally recognisable construction was an Islamic work. A thought-provoking and absorbing book.

THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN COOK BY GLYN WILLIAMS (Profile, £15.99)

IT'S WITH the death of a reputation that Williams is most concerned, though, as he points out, there was disagreement from the start as to whether the explorer had brought on the fatal fracas in Hawaii himself. Still more controversial has been the question of whether an officer of the Royal Navy sworn to uphold the tenets of the "Church of England established by law", allowed himself to be worshipped as a god. If not mad by the time he met his end, he was certainly fatigued by the demands of three expeditions. A brisk and intriguing essay on a challenging subject.