<p>Set in 1757 during the French and Indian War, as Britain and France fought for control of North America, <i>The Last of the Mohicans</i> is a historical novel and a rousing adventure story. It is also, <b>Wayne Franklin</b> argues in his introduction, a probing examination of the political and cultural contest taking shape more than half a century later in the author's own day as European settlement continued to relentlessly push Native Americans westward. The John Harvard Library edition reproduces the authoritative text of the novel from <i>The Writings of James Fenimore Cooper</i>, published by the State University of New York Press.</p>