diff --git a/src/read.rs b/src/read.rs
index c854f038..e095a96a 100644
--- a/src/read.rs
+++ b/src/read.rs
@@ -8,8 +8,9 @@ use crate::zipcrypto::ZipCryptoReader;
 use crate::zipcrypto::ZipCryptoReaderValid;
 use std::borrow::Cow;
 use std::collections::HashMap;
-use std::io;
-use std::io::prelude::*;
+use std::fs;
+use std::io::{self, prelude::*};
+use std::path::Path;
 
 use crate::cp437::FromCp437;
 use crate::types::{DateTime, System, ZipFileData};
@@ -307,6 +308,48 @@ impl<R: Read + io::Seek> ZipArchive<R> {
         })
     }
 
+    /// Extract a Zip archive into a directory.
+    ///
+    /// Paths are sanitized so that they cannot escape the given directory.
+    ///
+    /// This bails on the first error and does not attempt cleanup.
+    ///
+    /// # Platform-specific behaviour
+    ///
+    /// On unix systems permissions from the zip file are preserved, if they exist.
+    pub fn extract<P: AsRef<Path>>(&mut self, directory: P) -> ZipResult<()> {
+        for i in 0..self.len() {
+            let mut file = self.by_index(i)?;
+            let filepath = file.sanitized_name();
+
+            let outpath = directory.as_ref().join(filepath);
+
+            if (file.name()).ends_with('/') {
+                fs::create_dir_all(&outpath)?;
+            } else {
+                if let Some(p) = outpath.parent() {
+                    if !p.exists() {
+                        fs::create_dir_all(&p)?;
+                    }
+                }
+                let mut outfile = fs::File::create(&outpath)?;
+                io::copy(&mut file, &mut outfile)?;
+            }
+
+            // Get and Set permissions
+            #[cfg(unix)]
+            {
+                use std::os::unix::fs::PermissionsExt;
+
+                if let Some(mode) = file.unix_mode() {
+                    fs::set_permissions(&outpath, fs::Permissions::from_mode(mode))?;
+                }
+            }
+        }
+
+        Ok(())
+    }
+
     /// Number of files contained in this zip.
     ///
     /// ```no_run
diff --git a/tests/extract.rs b/tests/extract.rs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..f71c9822
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/extract.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+extern crate zip;
+
+use std::fs;
+use std::io;
+use std::path::PathBuf;
+
+use zip::ZipArchive;
+
+// This tests extracting the contents of a zip file
+#[test]
+fn extract() {
+    let mut v = Vec::new();
+    v.extend_from_slice(include_bytes!("../tests/data/files_and_dirs.zip"));
+    let mut archive = ZipArchive::new(io::Cursor::new(v)).expect("couldn't open test zip file");
+
+    archive
+        .extract(&PathBuf::from("test_directory"))
+        .expect("extract failed");
+
+    // Cleanup
+    fs::remove_dir_all("test_directory").expect("failed to remove extracted files");
+}