Recently came across this article, and haunting series of photographs, of women Petroleuses (arsonists) during the Paris commune.
http://www.iisg.nl/collections/petroleuses/intro.php
Has anyone heard of this before, or have more detail on their idelogical motivations?
Yeah I've heard of them - Louise Michel was famously accused of being one. The idea behind it being that if the govt re-took Paris they'd be none of it left to take. Don't know how many of them there were though, seems like they were a bit demonised, like a more hardcore version of the current casseurs