The ten original essays in this collection, all by internationally known Cooper scholars, offer fresh and original insights into the five Leather-Stocking Tales: ""The Pioneers"" (1823), ""The Last of the Mohicans"" (1826), ""The Prairie"" (1827), ""The Pathfinder"" (1840), and ""The Deerslayer"" (1841). Treating the novels individually or commenting on the series as a whole, the contributors address such issues as race, gender, and ethnicity in Cooper's world and their relationship to ours, as well as scholarly responses to the politics and economics of the early Republic and discussions of the nature of American frontier society in the first half of the nineteenth century.Intended to be used as a companion to a study of Cooper and his Leather-Stocking novels, this collection of lively, informative, and readable essays will encourage serious contemporary discussion of America's first successful - and at one time most popular - novelist.