The Third Wave was an experimental social movement created by high school history teacher Ron Jones in 1967 to explain how the German populace could accept the actions of the Nazi regime during the Second World War. While he taught his students about Nazi Germany during his "Contemporary World History" class, Jones found it difficult to explain how the German people could accept the actions of the Nazis, and decided to create a social movement as a demonstration of the appeal of fascism. As the movement grew outside his class and began to number in the hundreds, Jones began to feel that the movement had spiraled out of control.
Pair “The Third Wave” with “Milgram experiment on obedience” and ask students to compare the two experiments discussed in the texts. How were authority figures established in the two experiments described in the texts? How did the participants in the experiments respond to the commands of the people in charge? In what ways did the participants in the experiments act out of character because of the commands from people in power?