War and its aftermath figure prominently in our recommended titles this week, from Andrew Bacevich’s critique of American foreign policy (“After the Apocalypse”) to two books about the 20-year fight in Afghanistan (Carter Malkasian’s “The American War in Afghanistan” and Craig Whitlock’s “The Afghanistan Papers”) to Robert S. Levine’s study of Andrew Johnson’s role in the immediate wake of the Civil War (“The Failed Promise”). Meanwhile, Algeria’s war for independence from France provides the backdrop to Leila Slimani’s new novel, “In the Country of Others” — it’s subtitled “War, War, War” — which is based on her grandmother’s experiences during that conflict.
