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

The Pioneers is a novel in the romantic tradition—a tale of love, hidden identity, and forest adventure. It is also a vivid description of life in a newly settled village on the American frontier, where people of varied ethnic and racial backgrounds have come together to build a new community. In it, James Fenimore Cooper introduced his most memorable character, the wilderness scout Natty Bumppo, nicknamed the Leatherstocking. Cooper would make him the central character of four more very popular "Leatherstocking Tales," and he would become the inspiration for much of the American "Western" tradition down to The Lone Ranger and Tonto.