The Wave

Author: Todd Strasser
Publication Date: September 15, 1981
Source: Purchased

Summary from Goodreads:    The Wave is based on a true incident that occured in a high school history class in Palo Alto, California, in 1969.
The powerful forces of group pressure that pervaded many historic movements such as Nazism are recreated in the classroom when history teacher Burt Ross introduces a "new" system to his students. And before long The Wave, with its rules of "strength through discipline, community, and action", The Wave sweeps from the classroom through the entire school. And as most of the students join the movement, Laurie Saunders and David Collins recognize the frightening momentum of The Wave and realize they must stop it before it's too late.

Rating: êêê

Review: This book was recommended to me by one of my friends, so even though it's outside of my usual genre, I decided to give it a try. The book is geared towards young adults. The story and the experiment are pretty fascinating. I think that it really helps people understand the mindset of the German people during Nazi Germany and to be honest, I think the experiment does help to answer the students' difficult questions that spark the experiment. However, the writing is poor and it feels more like a simplified retelling of the incident. It was a short book that was easy to read.