SIMPLY CHARLY's goal is to offer a new and different portal for students and teachers to explore historical figures. The site is designed to serve as a complement to our teachers and educators and offers a way to stir the students' creative minds. From the main site, you can click through to sites devoted to the great historical figures of art, architecture, science, music, literature, philosophy, politics, and economics. Everyone from Elvis Presley to Sigmund Freud, from Albert Einstein to Franz Kafka, will be thoroughly covered. These are the individuals from history who have helped to create modern western culture, whose works form a critical part of cultural literacy but which are also interesting in their own right, outside of the classroom.

Each site provides a layman's introduction to the subject. You don't need to know physics or advanced math to explore SIMPLY EINSTEIN or SIMPLY GODEL, and you don't have to be an English major to click on SIMPLY HEMINGWAY. Important concepts are introduced in terms everyone can understand, and the work of the individual is always placed in context, from Hemingway's involvement in the Lost Generation group of writers to the state of physics when Einstein wrote his famous early papers.

Many of these individuals straddled the border between the past and the present, as old ways of thinking gave way to new approaches in the twentieth century. Igor Stravinsky and W.B. Yeats helped to usher in the twentieth century with their music and poetry, Karl Marx inspired the most important political movement of the century, Elvis Presley revolutionized popular music, and Pablo Picasso helped to introduce cubism to the world of painting. These aren't the "one hit wonders" of the arts, sciences, and humanities -- these are the masters who continue to have an impact as their works are rediscovered by new generations.

At each SIMPLY CHARLY site, web-surfers of all ages can learn about the lives and works of these great figures. After a brief introduction on the front page, featuring a lively caricature of the subject, readers can go to the "About" page for an informative biography that introduces the individual's contributions and creations. The "News," "Multimedia," and "Links" pages collect relevant material about each subject, while the "Works" page features an extensive bibliography (or filmography, discography, et cetera) to encourage readers to explore the creations of these great men and women. A Forum is provided for discussion threads.

The SIMPLY CHARLY portals are the work of the online education division of the Carlini Group, a multimedia company founded by musician and entrepreneur Charles Carlini in 1995. A number of portals are available now -- more continue to be added frequently, so please check back!