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Three or More Is a Riot

Three or More Is a Riot

Notes on How We Got Here: 2012-2025

About the Book

From one of the definitive journalists of this era  -- acclaimed historian, Pulitzer finalist, staff writer at the New Yorker, and dean of Columbia Journalism School--comes a kaleidoscopic, real-time portrait of our last turbulent decade.

What just happened? 

From the moment Trayvon Martin's senseless murder initiated the Black Lives Matter movement in 2014, America has been convulsed by the new social movements--around guns, gender violence, sexual harrassment, 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 tries to pull the signal from the noise of chaotic era. Cobb's work as a reporter takes readers to the frontlines 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 melange of narrative journalism, criticism, and penetrating profiles, Cobb 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.
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Praise for Three or More Is a Riot

Praise for Three or More Is a Riot

“Jelani Cobb’s Three Or More Is a Riot is a remarkable book, full of lyrical prose tracing our recent history from the democratic spring of the Obama years to the authoritarian winter now enveloping the nation in its cold embrace. 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


Praise for THE MATTER OF BLACK LIVES

“A standout among recent books about race . . . The Matter of Black Lives is a treasure chest of essays guaranteed to provoke, dismay, delight and inspire.”—BookPage, starred review

“More than an antiracist reading list . . . [Jelani] Cobb and [David] Remnick have assembled a dialogue across generations of New Yorker contributors that encourages readers to engage with the nation’s history of racism and potential for change.”—Library Journal, starred review

“An essential volume for readers interested in the Black past and present.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“This standout anthology illuminates a matter of perennial concern.”—Publishers Weekly
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About the Author

Jelani Cobb
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. More by Jelani Cobb
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