Access a growing selection of included Audible Originals, audiobooks, and podcasts.
You will get an email reminder before your trial ends.
Audible Plus auto-renews for $7.95/mo after 30 days. Upgrade or cancel anytime.
The Zimmermann Telegram  By  cover art

The Zimmermann Telegram

By: Barbara W. Tuchman
Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
Try for $0.00

$7.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $13.22

Buy for $13.22

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

In the dark winter of 1917, as World War I was deadlocked, Britain knew that Europe could be saved only if the United States joined the war. But President Wilson remained unshakable in his neutrality. Then, with a single stroke, the tool to propel America into the war came into a quiet British office. One of countless messages intercepted by the crack team of British decoders, the Zimmermann telegram was a top-secret message from Berlin inviting Mexico to join Japan in an invasion of the United States. Mexico would recover her lost American territories while keeping the U.S. occupied on her side of the Atlantic.

How Britain managed to inform America of Germany's plan without revealing that the German codes had been broken makes for an incredible, true story of espionage, intrigue, and international politics, as only Barbara W. Tuchman could tell it.

©1958 Barbara W. Tuchman (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

Critic reviews

“A true, lucid thriller…. Mrs. Tuchman makes the most of it with a creative writer’s sense of drama and a scholar’s obeisance to the evidence.” ( New York Times)
“The tale has most of the ingredients of an Eric Ambler spy thriller.” ( Saturday Review)

What listeners say about The Zimmermann Telegram

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    867
  • 4 Stars
    424
  • 3 Stars
    174
  • 2 Stars
    34
  • 1 Stars
    15
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    811
  • 4 Stars
    326
  • 3 Stars
    111
  • 2 Stars
    37
  • 1 Stars
    16
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    814
  • 4 Stars
    316
  • 3 Stars
    127
  • 2 Stars
    24
  • 1 Stars
    11

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fascinating

Loved this. My area of interest is usually WWII but this gave real insight into the US entry into WWI. Wilson was right that the terms of the peace would leave to strife later. Also interesting that Germany saw Japan as a natural ally and foe against the US. Four stars for performance because the American accents were a bit grating.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

incredible story.

A great companion piece to Guns of August. Wonderful narrator as usual. highly recommend.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Gripping and illuminating

Beautifully told, elegantly read. Barbara Tuchman is a master. If only we could have first learned history from her—but better late than never

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent

Like all Tuchman books, first-rate. Well-researched history told well…and the narrator is superb as well.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

History is a lot more twisted than we know!

What an amazing look at the behind the scenes twists and turns of history! How little we really know about what moves nations and governments. This book helps you to see that.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Overlooked Masterpiece

great research and extremely well written historical events right in America's backyard before Great War

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Well- researched and detailed

The only problem I had with The Zimmermann Telegram is likely a function of it being an audiobook. It was so detailed that I had trouble remembering who all the people were, especially those in the earlier chapters with whom I was not readily familiar. Had it been the print version, I could have flipped back to where that person’s name initially appeared. This was not possible with the audiobook. Still, on the whole, it was a very worthwhile production.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fascinating history and I learned things I didn't

Fascinating history. who knew Germany , Mexico and Japan were all working together and the tie in with Pancho Via. For me the delivery a little dry and the story itself was hard to follow.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Intrigue, Spycraft, Diplomacy, and True History

President Woodrow Wilson campaigned on keeping America out of the Great War in Europe and for him, it was not just a political promise. Wilson believed that war should be avoided at any cost and that was particularly true of such a nonsensical war as this one. With the war at a stalemate and just keeping it at a stalemate was costing countless lives and doing great harm to the world’s economy. Britain especially wanted America’s help but Wilson seemed oblivious to any pressure and continued to push for what he called “peace without victory,” meaning that enough lives had been lost and neither side was going to win as things stood, so it was best just to call it a tie and send the troops home. At the same time, both sides knew that, if America did join in, whichever side that she joined would then be able to win. And both sides knew that, if America did join, it would be on the side of Britain and France, not Germany. But even when Germany again started sinking even passenger boats crossing the Atlantic, Wilson balked, and even when the Lusitania was sunk with the loss of almost 1,200 lives, 126 of them American, he still refused. 

Then codebreakers in British intelligence deciphered an intercepted German diplomatic cable from Germany’s Foreign Secretary Zimmerman to the embassy in Washington for transfer to the embassy in Mexico that they felt should change Wilson’s mind. The problem was, if they revealed it to the Americans, and America acted on that basis, it would reveal to the Germans that their code had been broken, which the British didn’t want to allow to happen. They had to think of a way to share the information that would not  reveal its source and when they did, the contents were earth shattering. It has come to be known as the Zimmerman telegram.

Zimmerman feared that Germany’s return to unrestricted submarine attacks on civilian shipping would eventually lead US would enter the war and they proposed that Mexico and Japan join with Germany and its allies, thus keeping the US occupied along its own borders, but with the understanding that in the postwar peace settlement, Mexico could regain her former territories that had been lost to the US–Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico and possibly even Japan gaining some American territory. (It should be noted that there is no indication that Mexico or Japan ever responded to this proposal and certainly neither took any actions against the US.) It’s uncertain if this was the main reason, but shortly after Wilson was made aware of this, he asked Congress for a declaration of war. 

This book is quite old and there is at least one newer study that had access to documents that were still classified at the time, but the ultimate findings are about the same and this is a very interesting and well-researched account. Its descriptions of the story is told in detail including the months-long struggle to figure out how to reveal the news to the US while making it look like the news came from a leak other than from a decrypted cable, existing unrest in Mexico at the time, Wilson’s agonizing over the many events and his stubborn (in the neutral sense of that word) focus on negotiations for peace, the various intrigues, even the naivity and unfounded trust placed on the Germans and the Kaiser. It also deals with the effects on the Japanese and the discriminatory legislationation that soured relations with this nation who was an ally in that war. 

It’s a book that makes history more like a spy novel, interesting and exiting with plot twists and personality conflicts. And, the more we know of the real details of the behind-the-scenes dealings in history, the easier that can be. Therere is a newer book and I have not read it, but I can say that this one hit the spot quite well. 

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

How did I not learn about this in school?

To be honest, I started reading this book as a mistake. I thought this was a different history book that I had been looking at and by the time I got to that "wait a minute..." moment I just decided to keep going. The book was interesting and is about the events prior to the United States entry into WWI and how the Zimmermann telegram precipitated that entry into the war. The book was well written and had nice moments of inserting those absurd moments that are actually true to keep the flow of the story interesting. Yes there were a couple of moments I actually laughed out loud. The items I found particularly interesting: the fine line of discovering and disseminating information during wartime without revealing how you had received said information, the extent of maneuverings of countries to recruit allies, steps taken to restrict communication of enemies and steps taken to secure multiple routes of communication during a war. I think I would have appreciated this book more if I had a more in depth knowledge of WWI. However, I think that also gives credit to the author that this book kept my interest even with my lack of knowledge and that it has given me the incentive to read further on this topic.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!