  In this introductory review presented at the IAU Symposium 253 "Transiting
Planets", I summarize the path from the initial 1995 radial-velocity discovery
of hot Jupiters to the current rich panoply of investigations that are afforded
when such objects are observed to transit their parent stars. Forty transiting
exoplanets are now known, and the time for that population to double has
dropped below one year. It is only for these objects that we have direct
estimates of their masses and radii, and for which (at the current time) we can
undertake direct studies of the chemistries and dynamics of their atmospheres.
Informed by the successes of hot Jupiter studies, I outline a path for the
spectroscopic study of certain habitable exoplanets that obviates the need for
direct imaging.
