Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are among the most interesting astrophysical objects in the Universe. IAU Symposium 304, dedicated to marking the centenary of B. E. Markarian's birth, addresses the most important questions in this area: understanding the possible evolutionary and/or physical connections between the different classes of AGN; the relation of AGN to their host galaxies; and understanding the true fraction of heavily obscured AGN in order to determine the true AGN luminosity function and its variation with redshift. This volume's topics include: historical spectral and colorimetric...