The Last of the Mohicans - Episode Two

In this second episode, John Yorke assesses the criticism levelled against James Fenimore Cooper’s 1826 novel The Last of the Mohicans - primarily that it is responsible for the widely held, inaccurate, view that indigenous Americans were inevitably disappearing during the period the novel is set, and that that false narrative was used to justify colonisation.

Also, John delves deeper into the author’s background to understand his influences, and asks what we should make of The Last of the Mohicans today.

John Yorke has worked in television and radio for 30 years and shares his experience as he unpacks the themes and impact of the books, plays and stories that are being dramatised in BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Drama series. As former Head of Channel Four Drama and Controller of BBC Drama Production he has worked on some of the most popular shows in Britain - from EastEnders to The Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless. As creator of the BBC Writers Academy, he's trained a generation of screenwriters - now with over 70 green lights and thousands of hours of television to their names. He is the author of Into the Woods, the bestselling book on narrative, and he writes, teaches and consults on all forms of narrative - including many podcasts for Radio 4.

Contributors:
Jordan Abel, Nisga’a writer and academic.
Richard Slotkin, American Cultural Historian.

Credits:
Readings by Eric Stroud
Excerpts from The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper, 1826.
Excerpt from Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses, by Mark Tawain, 1895.
Film clip from The Last of the Mohicans, 1992 Morgan Creek Entertainment /
Twentieth Century Fox.
Excerpt from Empty Spaces by Jordan Abel, 2023, read by the author.

Researcher: Henry Tydeman
Sound: Sean Kerwin
Producer: Jack Soper
Executive Producer: Caroline Raphael
Production Hub Coordinator: Dawn Williams

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds