This review of studies on Listeria immunity aims to draw attention to some of the discrepancies and contradictions in the literature and to show that immunity to murine listeriosis can no longer be considered a clear-cut convincing model of T-cell-mediated immunity to microbial infection. It discusses the limitations of the adoptive immunization assay, first used to demonstrate that anti-Listeria immunity is T-cell-mediated, and considers the mechanisms underlying the resolution of primary Listeria infection and immunity to reinfection.