Hi everyone:
I've recently watched Hitler's circle of Evil on netflix and despite I've found it sensationalist and yellowy in a way, I've realised that even though I've read some wonderful books on the issue of the third reich such as "A social History of the third Reich" from Richard Grunberger or "Why the Allies won" from Richard Overy I've never read a proper academic book or biography about the Nazi Leaders. I'm quite interested in learning more about all of them and their relations. Is there any book that this sub would reccomend? I would be grateful for your help.
EDIT: Dont worry if the books are dense or not very well written, i'm looking for academic articles or books, i'm interested in facts not in speculation or fiction.
One of the more useful books on the Third Reich produced in the last decade is Michael Wildt's An Uncompromising Generation: The Nazi Leadership of the Reich Security Main Office. Wildt examines the SS's RSHA to uncover a social picture of their involvement both with Nazism as well as the SS. It is a well-written book, but also one that is filled with a number of key insights into how the dictatorship functioned in this key organ of it.
There are no shortages of biographies written by scholars for the Third Reich's leaders. Ian Kershaw's tomes on Hitler are now being being supplemented by Volker Ullrich's planned multi-volume biography. Peter Longerich has written doorstopper volumes on both Himmler and Goebbels. Goering surprisingly does not have any decent, up-to date biography which is an unexpected gap. There is not even a recent German-language biography aside from the pop-ish Guido Knopp one, and German publishing market is quite keen on biographies. An older work but one that is useful for sussing out the Nazi's contradictory vision of the economy is Robert Ley: Hitler's Labor Leader by Ronald Smelser. Robert Gerwarth has a biography of the RSHA's chief Reinhard Heydrich, Hitler's Hangman: The Life of Heydrich that really filled in a vacuum in English-language historiography as much of the prior biographical sketches of Heydrich were regurgitation of gossip and innuendo collected by the likes of Shirer. Catherine Epstein's Model Nazi: Arthur Greiser and the Occupation of Western Poland is an interesting look into a mid-level functionary and true believer in the Nazis' mission.
Finally, although they are not leaders nor an elite, it is worth reading Christopher Browning's Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland. This book is a classic that is an examination of a regular detachment of German troops who engaged in horrible atrocities. This is a good way to balance out an elite-heavy reading list because for all their foibles, petty feuds, and grandiose dreams, it was ordinary Germans who carried out some of the most defining elements of the Nazi dictatorship. The leadership may have enabled the activities of Reserve Police Battalion 101 and given them sanction, but these were the individuals who pulled the trigger. Looking only at the elite runs the risk of missing the masses of Germans who went along with them and contributed to the Third Reich's bloody and short history.