We’ve been here before: The U.S.
government has shut down due to lack of funding 18 times in its history. Most
of those shutdowns were short-lived, usually lasting only a few days or a
little over a week. The longest shutdown was also the most recent – 21
days in the winter of 1995 and 1996. We’ve compiled some of the best writing
about that shutdown and the current one.

Have
another great story about government shutdowns? Email me at [email protected].

Absolutely everything you need to know
about how the government shutdown will work, Wonkblog, September 30, 2013

If you haven’t been following the
story, Wonkblog will catch you up.

Rant, Listen, Exploit, Learn, Scare, Help,
Manipulate, Lead, New York Times
Magazine, January 28, 1996

In the wake of
the 1996 shutdown, the New York Times Magazinedelved into the thinking of the man behind the move, then-Speaker
of the House Newt Gingrich. 

Distance From Budget Crisis No Comfort to
Illinois Town, Los Angeles Times, January 7, 1996

Two Los Angeles Timesreporters trekked out to the small,
conservative town of Sycamore, Ill. during the 1996 shutdown, where citizens fed
up with politics were beginning to experience the effects of cuts in government
services.

National Zoo reopens, but it’s far from
business as usual, Washington
Post, January 7, 1996

If the government
shuts down, who ships the elephant, rhino, hippo
and giraffe manure out of the National Zoo? The Washington Post reported on the
surprising and fascinating ways the 1996 shutdown hampered zoo operations.

Last Shutdown a Lesson Lost on Capitol Hill, New York Times, September 28, 2013

The last shutdown was actually quite
different from the current one. For instance, in 1995, Congress had passed
several appropriations bills, which funded parts of the government. Today,
Congress hasn’t passed any.

The Odd Story of the Law That Dictates How
Government Shutdowns Work, The
Atlantic, September
28, 2013

No
other government in the world shuts down the way the American government
does, and it’s all because of an obscure law passed in the late 1800s. The Antideficiency Act was originally meant to prevent the president
from entering into contracts before Congress approved the spending. Now it
means that Congress can shut down the Executive Branch’s “non-essential”
operations.

Australia had a government shutdown once.
In the end, the queen fired everyone in Parliament, Wonkblog,
October 1, 2013

In 1975, Australia’s
parliament shut down the government during a budgetary battle. But over the
course of one afternoon, Queen Elizabeth II’s official representative dissolved
the whole Parliament. A month later, Australians elected a whole new
government, and it has never had a shutdown since.