Believe it or not, the crisis of 2008 wasn't actually the first time the good, ole U.S. of A. experienced tough times. To write the 2009 inaugural address, Jon Favreau studied past addresses from difficult times in history (source).

America has been through multiple economic slides, but the most devastating was the Great Depression. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's 1933 inaugural address set the bar for presidents encouraging the nation in lean times.

When FDR took office during the Depression, the federal government wasn't very involved in regulating the economy or spending money on public projects.

In his 1933 inaugural address, FDR asks Congress for "broad executive power to wage a war against the emergency." He got what he wished for, creating new government programs like the Works Progress Administration and Social Security.

Obama's 2009 inaugural address faces down the precedents of the past. Since the Depression, American politics had been a tired debate about the size of government. Instead of making it about big or small government, Obama focuses on the civilian population. The recovery, he says, would rely on everybody's contribution, not just federal spending.