Even if it is fiction, it was influenced by the ... non-fictitious events taking place during the time of writing! How is one supposed to enjoy a piece of anything without knowing what was going on when it was being written?!
... There is plenty of points to asking why one wrote a textbook! It needs context, is it relevant, plenty of other factors that one simply cannot know from this library!!
[ there's a point of looking far too into things and AR passed it hours ago. ]