The Wave - based on a true story

The Wave is based on the real experience of a high school class in Palo Alto, CA (USA), in April 1967. History teacher Ron Jones attempted to teach his pupils the realities of fascism by encouraging them to form a kind of classroom Hitler Youth. This movement became so popular that the life of the whole school was affected. Jones later wrote down his experiences with his history class, and published this as a report entitled " The Third Wave". It was published in many magazines and won Jones instant fame. He was interviewed by radio stations and newspapers, and even appeared on "Good Morning America". Later the story was made into a successful film which was shown on American TV in the autumn of 1981. After this broadcast the novelization rights of the TV film were sold to a large American publishing company which commissioned a well-known writer of young adult fiction, Todd Strasser, to write the novelization of the film version. This he did under the pseudonym Morton Rhue. Ever since its appearance in book form the novel has been extremely popular among young people.