This edition includes a modern introduction and a list of suggested further reading.

James Fenimore Cooper's The Prairie is the last episode in the Leatherstocking Tales. Set on the Great Plains just after the Louisiana Purchase, the frontier novel recounts the story of the aging trapper Natty Bumppo. The novel involves a series of conflicts between white settlers and rivaling Native American tribes. It communicates the destruction of natural resources and the tragic eradication of native peoples resulting from America's expansionist ideology.