The Last of the Mohicans is primarily a historical novel. This genre was popularized by the Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott in the 1810s. The idea of the historical novel is to deliver readers a fictionalized version of history that comes alive on the page. Compelling plots and charming characters incite the reader's investment in historical events, especially events at the heart of national identity. The historical novel is sometimes called the historical romance. There are some distinctions between these two terms, but Cooper's intensely emotional plots mean that his novels can also be characterized as historical romances.
Cooper modeled his Leatherstocking Tales off of Scott's extraordinarily successful Waverley novels, which offer fictionalized accounts of Scotland's religious and political history. Because Cooper wanted to write about the United States (in fact, he is widely considered one of the first commercially successful American novelists), his novels are set in the 18th century before and after the Revolutionary War. Like many other historical novels, The Last of the Mohicans attempts to make sense of history and treats the present political climate as inevitable, even if the novel is ambivalent about it. For instance, Cooper wrote this novel as the United States was launching a highly organized campaign for "Indian Removal," or the violent eviction of American Indians from their ancestral lands to clear more potential property for United States citizens (especially white citizens). This process had been going on for centuries by the 1820s, but the Indian Removal Act of 1830 made it central to the government's agenda. The Last of the Mohicans travels back in time to the 1750s and explores the idea of an American Indian nation, the Mohicans, "naturally" dying out because of conflict with other American Indian groups. The novel invites readers to mourn the disappearance of American Indians from the landscape as a sad but natural process that the government is powerless to reverse. It invites a great deal of feeling and not much in the way of activism.
Despite its focus on feelings, the novel is also littered with facts, both real and made up. Like other historical novelists, Cooper presents himself as an expert on local history. Between all the authoritative footnotes and anthropological commentary, it is sometimes hard to remember that the entire story is fictional.
