Many of the original essays in this volume began as papers presented at an international conference sponsored by the Missouri Humanities Council and the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy, A Fire-Bell in the Past: Re-assessing the Missouri Crisis at 200, held at the University of Missouri at Columbia on February 15-16, 2019. In an attempt not only to reassess but add to historians' understanding of the full scope of the causes and consequences of what came to be known as the Missouri Crisis, on a regional and national basis, the editors extended their invitation for scholarly works beyond the conference, ending up with too many first-rate and important new additions to the historiography than could be presented in this first volume. With the second volume slated for Fall 2021 publication, this unique work is perfectly timed to mark Missouri's Bicentennial.