Are you missing context perhaps? How much do you know about the late Hapsburg empire, or German thought in the early 20th Century. (I don't claim to know that m

Are you missing context perhaps? How much do you know about the late Hapsburg empire, or German thought in the early 20th Century. (I don't claim to know that much, but enough to make sense of some the book that I couldn't otherwise.) A very intelligent friend didn't make much of it, I recall.