Cutaneous leishmaniasis is a major public health problem and causes a range of diseases from self-healing infections to chronic disfiguring disease. Currently, there is no vaccine for leishmaniasis, and drug therapy is often ineffective. Since the discovery of CD4⁺ T helper 1 (T_H1) cells and T_H2 cells 30 years ago, studies of cutaneous leishmaniasis in mice have answered basic immunological questions concerning the development and maintenance of CD4⁺ T cell subsets. However, new strategies for controlling the human disease have not been forthcoming. Nevertheless, advances in our knowledge of the cells that participate in protection against Leishmania infection and the cells that mediate increased pathology have highlighted new approaches for vaccine development and immunotherapy. In this Review, we discuss the early events associated with infection, the CD4⁺ T cells that mediate protective immunity and the pathological role that CD8⁺ T cells can have in cutaneous leishmaniasis.