........SENATE 

......... 

R

EE

SENATE COMMITTEE ON UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES 

F

rom

............................................ 

Date. .!     

.

14, 1984 

Action undertaken by the Senate Committee on Undergraduate Studies 

at its meeting of February 7, 1984 gives rise to the following motion: 

MOTION: 

"That Senate approve and recommend approval to the Board of 

Governors, as set forth in S.84-18 , the proposed 

New course - HIST 402-3 - Progress and Decline: Ideas and 

Realities" 

To ? 

Mr

H.

Evans            

?

Sheila Roberts 

Secretary 

?

Secretary, Faculty of Arts 

S.C.U.S.                    

Curriculum Committee 

Subject ..... 

N

.

Proposal .IiST....*Q.3......................  

Date 

........January 20, 194 

The Faculty of Arts Curriculum Committee approved the following course 

for permanent inclusion in the Calendar at its meeting of January 12, 1984. 

HIST 402-3 Progress and Decline: Ideas and Realities 

.

?

Would you please place this on the next agenda of S.C.U.S. Thank you. 

S. Roberts 

?

SR/md 

Attachments 

c.c. History 

SENATE COMMITTEE ON UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES? 

NEW COURSE PROPOSAL FORM 

1.

Calendar Information 

?

Department 

Abbreviation Code: HIST 

?

Course Number: 402 

?

Credit Hours: 

Vector: ? 

___

Title of Course: Progress and Decline: Ideas and Realities 

Calendar Description 

of Course: From the ancient world to the modern, men have been quick 

to conclude that their time was either advancing or regressing in learning, in 

creativity 

and in political 

position. In this course students will undertake to investigate, througk 

the reading of primary texts, the western awareness of historical progress and 

decline. 

Emphasis will be placed upon the historical context of these ideas. 

Nature of Course 

seminar 

Prerequisites (or special instructions): HIST 105 and 106 strongly recommended. 

What course (courses), if any, is being dropped from the calendar if this course is 

approved: None. 

2.

Scheduling 

How frequently will the course be offered? once every two years. 

Semester in 

which the course will first be offered? spring 

Which of your present 

faculty would be available to make the proposed offering 

possible? P.E. Dutton 

3. Objectives 

of the Course: to familiarize students with one of the main currents of 

western historical thought and to lead them to analyze notions of progress and 

- ?

decline critically. 

4.

Budgetary and Space Requirements (for Information only) 

What additional resources will be required in the following areas: None. 

Faculty 

Staff 

Library ? 

See attached 

Audio Visual 

Space 

Equipment 

5. Approval 

Date: ? 

5/J

Department Chairman 

/

Dean 

?

Chairman, SCUS 

Attach 

SCUS 73-34b:- 

course outline). 

(When completing this form, for instructions see Memorandum 

HISTORY 402-3 

Progress and Decline: Ideas and Realities 

In this course students will undertake to 

investigate, through the 

reading of primary texts, the western awareness of historical progress 

and decline. ? 

Emphasis will be placed upon the historical context 

of these ideas. Students will be required to submit one essay of 15-23 

pages (worth 60I 

the final grade    

?

present one seminar 

(3C%), 

and

to particirate in all seminars (l3). 

xequired Texts 

The Awareness of Historical Decline in the West, ed.P.E. Dutton: photocopied 

primary texts to be purchased from the 

S.F.U. History 

Department. 

The Idea of Progress, eds. F.J. Teggart and G.H. Hildebrand (rev. ed., 

Berkeley, 1949), subject to availability: primary texts. 

The Idea of 

p

rogress since the Renaissance, ed. W.W. Wagar (Major Issues in 

History; New York, l969)T 

'p

rimary texts. 

Hobert Nisbet, History 

of

?

of Progress (New York, 1980). 

.

Course Outline 

1.

An introduction to perceptions of progress and decline. 

2.

Greek notions of progress and decline from Homer to Plato and Aristotle. 

3.

The Fall of Republican Rome. 

4.

The Fall of Imperial Rome. 

5.

Western History and the example of Rome. 

6.

Early medieval history and the appearance of the Carolingian empire. 

7.

The fragmentation of the Carolingian empire. 

8.

The Later Middle Ages and the Apocalyptic tradition. 

9.

Renaissance notions of progress and decline. 

10.

The Enlightenment. 

Ii. The 

century: Decadents and Victorians. 

12.

The twentieth century. 

13. Conclusion. 

• ? 

.

Supplementary Bibliography on 

Decline: 

Burke, Peter, 'Tradition and Experience: the Idea of Decline from Brunl to 

Gibbon', 

in

Edward Gibbon and the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 

eds. G.W. Bowersock et al. (Cambridge, 

1977) 

Carter, A.E., The Idea of Decadence in French Literature, 

18

3 0

(Toronto, 

Dutton, P.E., Awareness 

Historical Decline in the Carolingian Em 

p

ire, 

(Ph.D. thesis, Toronto, 

Gilman, ft., Decadence: the Strange Life of'an Epithet (New York, 

Mazzarino, S., The End of the Ancient World, trans. G. Holmes (London, 1966). 

Nisbet, R.B., Social Change and History: Aspects of the Western Theory of 

Development (Oxford, 

Starn, ft., Meaning- Levels in the Theme of Historical Decline', History and 

Theory14 ( 

1

Swart, 

K.,

The Sense 

Decadence in Nineteenth-Century France (The Hague, 

1964), esp. 

Vyverberg, H., Historical Pessimism in the French Enlightenment (Cambridge, 

Williams, G., Change and Decline: Roman Literature 

in

the Early Empire 

(Berkeley, 

Progress: 

Buckley, 

J.H., The 

Triumph 

of Time. A Study 

the Victorian Concepts of Time, 

History, 

Progress 

and

Decadence (Cambridge, Ms., 1966). 

Bury, J .B., The 

Idea 

of Progress: 

an Inquiry into its Origin and Growth 

(London, 

Dodds, E.ft., 'The Ancient Concept of Progress', in E.R. Dodds, The 

Ancient 

Concept of Progress and Other Essays on Greek Literature and Belief 

(Oxford, 

1

Doren, C. Van, The Idea of Progress (Concepts in Western Thought 

Series, New 

York, 

. ?

E1elstein, L., The Idea of p 

rogress in C1asical 

Antiquity 

(Baltimore, 

Frankel, C., The Faith of Reason: the Idea of Prqgress in the French 

Eb l.ightenment (New York, 1948). 

Tsan'ff, RA., Civilization and Progress (Lexington, 1971). 

Tuvenson, L., 

Millennium 

and Utopia: a Study in the Background of the Idea 

of Progress (Berkeley, 1949). 

HIST 402-3 

•

?

A fine collection of secondary and primary materials has been 

acquired by the library to support the Department of History's 

PhD programme which began in 1970. 

The philosophy of history has been a part of the undergraduate 

curriculum for some time. It is presently included in Hist 495 

which examines various philosophies of history; these, Hist 402 

proposes to treat in greater depth. 

The library holdings, bolstering, as they do, the PhD programme, 

do not need to be expanded for this course. They are further 

aided by the philosophy's and political sciences interest in 

the subject and their relevant materials. 