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Articles on Molotov cocktails

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Arson has evolved from a wrongful individual act into an effective means of collective violence. Murtada al Mousawy

Burn after reading: a short history of arson

We’ve been burning things for hundreds of thousands of years. Australian Aboriginals practised fire-stick farming to regenerate the soil and drive out animals for hunting. Yet manmade fires not only enable…
Incendiaries of varying complexity have been used in warfare since ancient times. Yann Caradec

The petrol bomb’s incendiary – and uncertain – history

The petrol bomb – or “Molotov cocktail” – is an iconic symbol of 20th-century political violence. Simple, cheap and effective, it has become a staple feature of protest, riot and rebellion; a weapon of…
Piecing together a crumbling cultural history. AP/Hussein Malla

Torched library an irreparable blow to Lebanese culture

On January 4, Tripoli’s historic Al Sa’eh Library, one of Lebanon’s largest, burnt down. Two-thirds of its 80,000 books and manuscripts were lost in a fire that consumed the building. This is no anomaly…

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