A full understanding of the origin of the hard X-ray background requires a
complete and accurate census of the distant galaxies that produce it.
Unfortunately, distant X-ray galaxies tend to be very faint at all wavelengths,
which hinders efforts to perform this census. This chapter discusses the
insights that can be obtained through comparison of the distant population to
local X-ray galaxies, whose properties are well characterized. Such comparisons
will ultimately aid investigations into the cosmic evolution of supermassive
black holes and their environments.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures, to appear as Chapter 7 in "Supermassive Black
Holes in the Distant Universe" (2004), ed. A. J. Barger, Kluwer Academic
Publishers, in pres