Can I install and compile a kernel without some Debian-specific tweaking?

Yes. But you have to understand the Debian policy with respect to headers. The Debian C libraries are built with the most recent stable releases of the gcc headers.

For example, the Debian-1.1 release uses version 5.2.18 of the headers. This practice contrasts with the Linux kernel source packages distributed at all Linux FTP archive sites, which uses even more recent versions of the headers. The kernel headers distributed with the kernel source are located in /usr/include/linux/include.

If you need to compile a program with kernel headers that are newer than those provided by libc5-dev, then you must add -I/usr/src/linux/include to your command line when compiling. This came up at one point, for example, with the packaging of the automounter daemon (amd). When new kernels changed some internals dealing with NFS, amd needed to know about them.

This required the inclusion of the latest kernel headers. More.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.