The Panic of 1901 was a sharp stock market correction in the United States, triggered by a battle for control of the Northern Pacific Railway between the financiers E.H. Harriman and James J. Hill. The struggle created a short squeeze that caused railroad stocks to soar and then crash, leading to a wider market sell-off and a brief but severe financial panic. The event highlighted the power of Wall Street trusts and the instability of the unregulated stock market.

The panic contributed to the Progressive Era's critique of corporate power, influencing muckraking journalists and poets who wrote about the abuses of the 'robber barons.' The event was referenced in the works of writers like Frank Norris and Upton Sinclair, who used the financial turmoil to illustrate the dangers of unbridled capitalism, themes that also appeared in the social poetry of the era.