Three or More Is a Riot: Notes on How We Got Here: 2012-2025

A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • From one of the definitive journalists of this era—acclaimed historian, Pulitzer Prize finalist, staff writer at The New Yorker, and Dean of Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism—comes a kaleidoscopic, real-time portrait of the turbulent past decade.

“Gripping . . . a stirring catalog of institutions lost, of other lives cut short . . . Cobb is unfailingly modest about his insight and the power of his work to effect change. But that modesty belies the fact that Cobb’s writing makes us feel the injustice deeply.”—The New York Times Book Review

What just happened?

From the moment that Trayvon Martin’s senseless murder initiated the Black Lives Matter movement in 2014, America has been convulsed by new social movements—around guns, gender violence, sexual harassment, race, policing, and on and on—and an equally powerful backlash that abetted the rise of the MAGA movement. In this punchy, powerful collection of dispatches, mostly published in The New Yorker, Jelani Cobb pulls the signal from the noise of this chaotic era.

Cobb’s work as a reporter takes readers to the front lines of sometimes violent conflict, and he uses his gifts as a critic and historian to crack open the meaning of it all. Through a stunning mélange of narrative journalism, criticism, and penetrating profiles, Cobb’s writing captures the crises, characters, movements, and art of an era—and helps readers understand what might be coming next.

Cobb has added new material to this collection—retrospective pieces that bring these stories up-to-date and tie them together, shaping these powerful short dispatches into a cohesive, epic narrative of one of the most consequential periods in recent American history.

About the Author :
Jelani Cobb is the current Dean of Columbia's Graduate School of Journalim. He is a staff writer at The New Yorker, author of several books including The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress and To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic. He is the editor/co-editor on multiple volumes including The Matter of Black Lives and The Essential Kerner Commission Report. Dr. Cobb is the producer/co-producer on documentaries including THE RIOT REPORT. He received the Peabody Award in 2020 and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Commentary. Dr. Cobb currently serves on the Board of Directors of the American Journalism Project and the Board of Trustees of the New York Public Library.

Review :
“In this collection of cultural criticism and reportage—drawn mostly from his writing for The New Yorker—Cobb offers a cleareyed look at a turbulent decade of grass-roots social movements and the eventual right-wing backlash they inspired.”—The New York Times, “21 Nonfiction Books Coming This Fall”

“[Three or More Is a Riot] is a gripping anthology of Cobb’s writing. . . . Cobb is unfailingly modest about his insight and the power of his work to effect change. But that modesty belies the fact that Cobb’s writing makes us feel the injustice deeply. . . . It is foremost a stirring catalog of institutions lost, of other lives cut short. On the rare occasions when he inserts his personal experience into the journalism, the result is a rich and satisfying creation.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Cobb offers an expansive collection of his published essays. . . . The volume includes political reportage, thoughtful cultural criticism . . . and obituaries and profiles. . . . The collection’s through line is Cobb’s sharp exploration of how America’s history of white supremacy continues to influence contemporary events.”—Publishers Weekly

“Each essay is a vivid snapshot of the America that existed at the time and a glimpse at the one that might have been, ultimately showing the reader the how of what America came to be.”—Adam Serwer, New York Times bestselling author of The Cruelty Is the Point

“Three or More Is a Riot is an archive of a writer at the height of his powers—and his powers are many. Insight, historical memory, reportage, pith, and, not least of all, wit. All these gifts he deploys here without missing a beat, effortlessly weaving them into his own distinctive style. We live in a time when writers like Cobb are being targeted by the highest powers in this nation. Read this book to understand why.”—Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of The Message

“Trained first as a scholar and then as a journalist, Jelani Cobb is an essayist of rare erudition and integrity. From his first pieces about Trayvon Martin to his more recent explorations of race in the Trump era, he has been an exemplar of intellectual honesty, fierce self-questioning, and independence. Jelani Cobb is a truth-teller and this book is a gift.”—David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker