"The second and most famous of James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales, The Last of the Mohicans (1826) stands as the quintessential American frontier novel. Set in 1757, the novel depicts struggles between Europeans and colonists, Indians and whites, and nature and civilization, chronicling the quests and fates of a now-legendary cast of characters, among them Alice and Cora Munro, daughters of a British colonel; Magua, leader of a group of...

"This book considers the portrayal of the American national character in the writings of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville. It examines Hawthorne's abiding concern with the development of New England from colony to province to republic, and analyses Melville's changing evocation of 'the new American', and the difficulties he faced in sustaining his heady nationalistic faith." --Publisher description.