And now, from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN, the Axviles, with your

host, David Axelrod.

David Rubenstein is known as one of the most successful business leaders in the country

as the founder of the Carlisle Group, one of the preeminent private equity firms in the

country.

He's also one of the great philanthropists in this country, investing in academic institutions

around the country in historical institutions, in preserving the artifacts of our democracy,

and in educating people about our democracy.

I had a chance to sit down with him on a visit to University of Chicago campus to talk about

his life and career and about where we are today in our history.

David Rubenstein, thank you so much.

Good to see you.

My pleasure to be here.

And just doing some reading for this conversation, what's clear is you're not the classic story.

People think very successful, billionaire, philanthropist, all of the things that you do must come

from a prominent Jewish family, a father, a lawyer, accountant, so on.

That's not your story.

You're correct.

Very often, if you have a last name like Rubenstein, people think your Jewish, your father

must have been a lawyer, a doctor, but I like to remind people there are plenty of

blue-collar Jews, and my father was one of them.

He dropped out of high school to go into World War II.

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