A Question for Pointy Heads

OK, excuse the title of this post – I wanted to get your attention.  I’m not one of those outsiders who holds academe in disdain; I even have a few friends and acquaintances on the inside whom I like and admire.  That clarification made, I have a question for them and any others of their ilk who’d like to contribute: has good old-fashioned American self-loathing affected how the history of the middle period – those years surrounding and including the Civil War – has been interpreted and taught on campus?  If so, how?

Man, there are some great self-loathing cartoons out there, and even a fake magazine, but I didn’t have any time to get permission to use them.