Impact

Experience the unnerving immediacy of war in John Woolslair Sheppard's intriguing new memoir, "Impact: Six Degrees of Separation."

The author uses the mathematical theory of six degrees of separation, in which everyone and everything on earth is somehow connected by six steps or fewer, as the basis for his personal and familial connection to many of the major heroes and happenings of both world wars.

Sheppard, an army veteran, painstakingly describes the wartime roles played by people like Captain Channing Page, Henry Ford, and General Pershing, as well as the events that changed the course of both World War I and World War II-all of which can relate back to the author himself through family, friends, and his hometown of Lee County, Florida.

With the hope that one day, mankind will learn to live together in peace, Sheppard carefully analyzes the explosive elements that eventually led to World War I...as well as the seeds that remained behind after its conclusion, which eventually ripened into the atrocities of World War II.

A powerful testament to the ways in which war touches us all, "Impact: Six Degrees of Separation" poignantly demonstrates that we're all in this world together.