This book examines qualitative properties of vector fields in the plane, in the spirit of Hilbert's Sixteenth Problem. Two principal topics explored are bifurcations of limit cycles of planar vector fields and desingularization of singular points for individual vector fields and for analytic families of such fields. In addition to presenting important new developments in this area, this book contains an introductory paper which outlines the general context and describes connections between the papers in the volume. The book will appeal to researchers and graduate students working in the qualitative theory of ordinary differential equations and dynamical systems.