As I noted yesterday in another thread, Alexander's invasion is an aspect of Iranian history I need to study with greater care. I am not especially confident in reading most kinds of Classical or Hellenic primary sources unless I am very familiar with what is being described, however, so I definitely need some kind of secondary source to back me up.
I'm welcoming any types of suggestions - biographies, glossed source corpuses, anthologies, etc. I'm less interested in the "Great Man" aspect and more interested in trying to tease out contextual details to understand Alexander's success. A critical or minimalist approach to source material is preferred.
Thanks!
This is a huge topic, and this is in no way complete - I imagine some of the other users here will be easily able to list of dozens of works that you should read. I'll just give introductory recommendations
The best place to start is The Landmark Arrian: The Campaigns of Alexander, which is basically the best english-language edition of Arrian on the market. The volume comes with a sizeable amount of essays by scholars, explanatory chapters, annotation and recommendations for further reading as supplementary material.
In regards to biographical, political and military history - these three works are a pretty solid introduction.
Alexander of Macedon 356-323 B.C.: A Historical Biography by Peter Green
Alexander the Great in His World by Carol Thomas
By the Spear: Philip II, Alexander the Great, and the Rise and Fall of the Macedonian Empire by Ian Worthington
Some broader contextual studies about the Hellenistic world as a whole
Alexander to Actium by Peter Green
Athens from Alexander to Antony by Christian Habicht
Army & Society in Ptolemaic Egypt by Christelle Fischer-Bovet
The Land of the Elephant Kings: Space, Territory and Ideology in the Seleucid Empire by Paul J. Kosmin
Thundering Zeus: The Making of Hellenistic Bactria by Frank L. Holt