"Turn-of-the century Vienna is remembered as an aesthetic, erotic, and intellectual wonderland: the birthplace of Freud and psychoanalysis, the waltz, and novels of Schnitzler. However, as Chandak Sengoopta argues, the contexts of this cultural vibrancy were darker and more complex than we might imagine.".

"This provocative, enlightening study explores the milieu in which the philosopher Otto Weininger (1880-1903) wrote his controversial book Sex and Character. Shortly after its publication, he committed suicide at the age of twenty-three. His book, which argued that women and Jews were mere sexual beings who lacked individuality, became a bestseller. Weininger thought that the emancipation of women and Jews was degrading civilization.".

"Sengoopta shows that Weininger's misogynist and anti-Semitic views did not stem solely from his private prejudices but were part of a comprehensive (and quite typically Viennese) analysis of masculinity and femininity and a critique of modernity in general and of feminist activism in particular."--BOOK JACKET.