Frank Herbert's popular series Dune is published, containing eugenic themes

1965. Dune, the first novel in Frank Herbert’s series of six Dune novels, is published. This novel won the Hugo Award in 1977, and is the world's best-selling science fiction novel. The plot centres on Paul Atreides, a man who is the result of a secret breeding program meant to produce a superhuman, known as the Kwisatz Haderach. As political circumstances force Paul and his mother to flee to the deserts of the planet Arrakis, he becomes a god-like figure to the society of people who live there. In this sense the eugenic program, of which his mother was a part, enables Paul to act as a saviour to the desert people and rise to a potential that is greater than “normal” humans.

In the Dune universe, mankind has colonized the galaxy 21,000 years into the future. In this future, a semi-religious sisterhood known as the Bene Gesserit exist, and attempt to guide mankind's evolution through eugenic breeding programs. These women train rigorously both physically and mentally, and seem to gain superhuman abilities because of it. The goal of their breeding program is to create a superhuman (the Kwisatz Haderach), a male version of a Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother. Paul Atreides is born a generation earlier than anticipated, and has all the powers of a Reverend Mother as a male Bene Gesserit. Other orders and people in subsequent books of the series make use of the Bene Gesserit breeding programs - in some cases manipulating breeding, gene splicing, or other technologies in order to create humans. Some of these appropriations were morally compromised, and the goal of the Bene Gesserit eventually shifts to securing certain human charactisterics and preserving them for future generations.

Eugenics programs as explored in the Dune series show complex views on eugenic practices, with both negative and beneficial (or necessary) consequences for humanity (Semler, 2011). Humanity becomes endangered due to focused breeding programs, but humanity is also potentially saved through them.

The Dune series has been hugely influential in popular culture. It has inspired novels, music, films (it is credited with influencing Star Wars), and has many television and movie adaptations. It is a good example of the close ties popular culture and eugenic themes can share.

More information on the original novel and the series is available online at here.

-Leslie Baker and Colette Leung

  • Herbert, F. (1965). Dune. New York: Ace Books.

  • Semler, S. (2011). The Golden Path of Eugenics. In J. Nicholas (Ed.), Dune and Philosophy: Weirding Way of the Mentat, (13-26), Chicago: Carus Publishing Company.

Frank Herbert's popular series Dune is published, containing eugenic themes

1965. Dune, the first novel in Frank Herbert’s series of six Dune novels, is published. This novel won the Hugo Award in 1977, and is the world's best-selling science fiction novel. The plot centres on Paul Atreides, a man who is the result of a secret breeding program meant to produce a superhuman, known as the Kwisatz Haderach. As political circumstances force Paul and his mother to flee to the deserts of the planet Arrakis, he becomes a god-like figure to the society of people who live there. In this sense the eugenic program, of which his mother was a part, enables Paul to act as a saviour to the desert people and rise to a potential that is greater than “normal” humans.

In the Dune universe, mankind has colonized the galaxy 21,000 years into the future. In this future, a semi-religious sisterhood known as the Bene Gesserit exist, and attempt to guide mankind's evolution through eugenic breeding programs. These women train rigorously both physically and mentally, and seem to gain superhuman abilities because of it. The goal of their breeding program is to create a superhuman (the Kwisatz Haderach), a male version of a Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother. Paul Atreides is born a generation earlier than anticipated, and has all the powers of a Reverend Mother as a male Bene Gesserit. Other orders and people in subsequent books of the series make use of the Bene Gesserit breeding programs - in some cases manipulating breeding, gene splicing, or other technologies in order to create humans. Some of these appropriations were morally compromised, and the goal of the Bene Gesserit eventually shifts to securing certain human charactisterics and preserving them for future generations.

Eugenics programs as explored in the Dune series show complex views on eugenic practices, with both negative and beneficial (or necessary) consequences for humanity (Semler, 2011). Humanity becomes endangered due to focused breeding programs, but humanity is also potentially saved through them.

The Dune series has been hugely influential in popular culture. It has inspired novels, music, films (it is credited with influencing Star Wars), and has many television and movie adaptations. It is a good example of the close ties popular culture and eugenic themes can share.

More information on the original novel and the series is available online at here.

-Leslie Baker and Colette Leung

  • Herbert, F. (1965). Dune. New York: Ace Books.

  • Semler, S. (2011). The Golden Path of Eugenics. In J. Nicholas (Ed.), Dune and Philosophy: Weirding Way of the Mentat, (13-26), Chicago: Carus Publishing Company.