The Wave is based on a true incident that occurred in a high school history class in Palo Alto, California, in 1969. For three years afterwards, according to the teacher, Ron Jones, no one talked about it. "It was," he said, "one of the most frightening events I have ever experienced in the classroom."
"The Wave" disrupted an entire school. The novel dramatizes the incident, showing how the powerful forces of group pressure that have pervaded many historical movements and cults can persuade people to join such movements and give up their individual rights in the process — sometimes causing great harm to others. The full impact on the students of what they lived through and learned is realistically portrayed in the book.
In addition to the novel, The Wave has been made into a one-hour television show for ABC by Virginia L. Carter, an executive director at Tandem Productions and T.A.T. Communications Company.
Harriet Harvey Coffin
Project Consultant
T.A.T. Communications Company