« The Wave » is a novel published by Todd Strasser in 1981 in the United States of America. This novel have been a real success all over the world, it was translated in 15 languages. It has been inspired by a true story called « The Third Wave » which was an experiment of psychology realised at Palo Alto High School in California in 1969 by an history teacher.

The novel repeat the chronology of the experiment made by the history teacher Ron Jones who had published an article in 1976. At the begining it just started with an typical lesson as we all have and then in about 2 weeks the experiment become a radical movement of totalitarian type. It remind us to the German and Russian regimes of the 1940’s because of their slogan « The force by the discipline, the force by the community, the force by the action » and also because of their logo and their salute which look like the one of the nazis. But the experiment turn out badly of course : most of the students become paranoïac, some are threaten by others… Then students created a movement of restistance against the experiment lead by Laurie who is the leader of the high school journal.

There’s also an adaptation of Ron Jones experiment to the screen but I didn’t watched it. However I have read the book and I recommend it it’s really interesting !