Three or More Is a Riot

Essays from The New Yorker

De: Jelani Cobb

Narrado por: Kevin R. Free

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.

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 listeners 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 listeners 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.

©2025 Jelani Cobb (P)2025 Random House Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

“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. . . . Cobb provides incisive historical context. . . . It’s both an illuminating time capsule and an insightful analysis of how the country’s history shapes its present.”—Publishers Weekly