E.M Forster’s essay What I Believe was published by the Hogarth Press in 1939. It is one of his best-known essays, and in it he expresses some of his humanistic beliefs. Written in the year of the outbreak of the Second World War, What I Believe is a defence of democracy and secular values against the advance of totalitarian regimes in Europe. Forster argues that there are two main advantages to democracy. First, it allows individual expression; secondly, it permits criticism.
