The Wave

The Classroom Experiment That Went too Far

By: Todd Strasser

Narrated by: Michael Crouch

Length: 3 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

The Wave is based on a true incident that occurred 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 Ben Ross introduces a "new" system to his students. And before long "The Wave", with its rules of "strength through discipline, community, and action," 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.

©1981 Dell Publishing Co., Inc., and T.A.T. Communications Company (P)2019 Recorded Books

A disturbing reminder

Learning about this in the 90s it felt unbelievable. After having lived through the last 5 years, I missed the luxury of having been so naive.

Wow, just wow!

This was a really great book. I would highly recommend this for any adult or teenager.

Great way to teach kids about what happened during WWII, had an insightful conversation.

Loved this book!
We were able to have insightful conversations about different countries and their governments.

Still timely, definitely a meaningful moral

Certainly interesting enough to pull me along. I think it's a desperately needed story for this time.

Excellent, everyone should read- important lesson!

Excellent, everyone should read.I love reading true stories especially when there are important lessons to learn. Narrator did a great jon with the different voices and was consistent in his volume.

An Ounce of Prevention is Worth, How Much?

If this leaves even one person with a sense of the gravity of taking lightly message of this story. Then, let’s say it loud, say it clear. For those who refuse to learn from history, are destined to repeat it! I only wish that more people were as determined to wake people from their self imposed slumber! Two thumbs to the author….The narrator was Ok…

It’s hard to believe this could happen

This should be required reading for every high school student. It is chillingly like the mass psychosis which is gripping our society today and stifling any dissent from the woke narrative.

Fascinating

The knowledge that this occurred just a generation after WWII is sobering. It is a reminder to question everything and take captive our ideas.

Great Lesson

I remember reading this when I was in high school, back in the early 1990's. I purchased it to see if it had the same impact in my daughter as it did for me. Personally, I think this should be required reading for all schools. Based on true events, it is a great message on "group think" and the dangers that come with it. Great story, very good performance. Highly recommended.

A Poor Rendition of a Good Book

The book itself is quite good. Strasser tells an engaging story despite the book's short length and intended audience. The fact that I remembered this book 15 years after I first read it in school speaks to how well it delivers it's lessons in a memorable and digestible way to middle and high schoolers.

Unfortunately, the audio side of this audiobook left a lot to be desired. First off, it was quite obvious to me that there were sections that had to be rerecorded and spliced in later. No fewer than five times did the audio quality drop off significantly and return to normal a sentence or two later. I know this isn't exactly a best-selling book with a massive budget for an audiobook, but I've listened to podcasts and self-produced audiobooks with more consistency.

Lastly, I am unsure if it was a stylistic choice, an idiosyncracy of Michael Crouch's narration, or another mark against the editors but the pauses between sentences were distractingly long. A combination of the long pauses and the audible breaths taken during them made this a very hard book to get into. I got halfway though before I could successfully tune them out and really enjoy the book.