This text looks at the current state of research in X-ray binaries. This is an area of study that has evolved markedly since the 1960s, with the first half of the period being dominated by X-ray binaries in the galaxy and the more recent interest being moved to extragalactic astronomy, particularly with the work of Joseph Taylor and Russell Hulse connecting low mass X-ray binaries to millisecond pulsars. Among the topics covered are black holes, accretion disks, binary interactions, evolution, X-ray pulsars, dynamics and wild interactions.