The Last of the Mohicans is a historical novel by James Fenimore Cooper.
The story is set in 1757, during the French and Indian War (the Seven Years’ War), when France and Great Britain battled for control of North America. During this war, the French depended on its Native American allies to help fight the more numerous British colonists in the Northeast frontier areas.
The Last of the Mohicans has been James Fenimore Cooper’s most popular work. It has continued as one of the most widely read novels throughout the world, and it has influenced popular opinion about American Indians and the frontier period of eastern American history. The romanticized images of the strong, fearless, and ever resourceful frontiersman, as well as the stoic, wise, and noble 'red man’ were notions derived from Cooper’s characterizations more than from anywhere else. The phrase, 'the last of the Mohicans, ’ has come to represent the sole survivor of a noble race or type.