Some of the book's writing originated in his notes for a seminar in urban affairs at University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.[2] These "Notes on Decentralization" were published in Dissent in 1964, republished in his 1977 expanded edition of Drawing the Line, and appeared in other edited volumes.[3]
Random House published People or Personnel: Decentralizing and the Mixed System in 1965.[4] Its appendices contain five previously published articles: "Getting into Power" (Liberation, 1962); "Avoiding Responsibility" (previously "The Establishment as a Moral Illegitimate" in Village Voice, 1964); "A New Deal for the Arts" (Commentary, 1964); "Engaged Editing" (his preface to Seeds of Liberation, 1964); and "An Example of Spontaneous Administration" (previously "Columbia's Unorthodox Seminars" in Harper's, 1964).[5] This edition also includes three public memoranda as appendices: to the Poverty Program, the Office of Education, and the Ford Foundation.[4] The aforementioned articles refer to his then-forthcoming book on decentralization by different titles, including Ways of Running Things and Decentralizing and the Mixed System.[6]
Sections of the book were later reprinted in Frank Tannenbaum's A Community of Scholars: The University Seminars at Columbia (1965), Ronald Gross and Paul Osterman's Individualism: Man in Modern Society (1971), and Liberation magazine.[7] The book's first chapter, originally published as "On Some Prima Facie Objections to Decentralism" (Liberation, 1964), was condensed and reprinted in the 1966 edited volume Patterns of Anarchy.[8]People or Personnel's manuscripts and galley proof are held in Syracuse University's special collections.[4]
Vintage Books published a dual paperback edition in February 1968 combining People or Personnel with Like a Conquered Province, adding additional republished essays for the latter's appendices.[4]
Reception
People or Personnel is among Goodman's best known works of social criticism.[9]
Davids, Leo (1970). "Rev. of People or Personnel and Like a Conquered Province". International Journal of Comparative Sociology11 (1): 73–75. doi:10.1163/156854270X00075. ISSN0020-7152.
Epstein, Joseph (1965-06-05). "Intellectualism in American Life". The New Republic: 21–23. ISSN0028-6583.
Goodman, Paul (1968). "Notes on Decentralization". Beyond Left & Right: Radical Thought for Our Times. New York: Morrow. pp. 387–. OCLC442456.
Green, Philip (1965). "Overorganized and Overroutinized". Dissent: pp. 511–514. ISSN0012-3846.
Hassenger, Robert (1965-08-28). "Rev. of People or Personnel by Paul Goodman". America113: 222–223. ISSN0002-7049.
Harrington, Michael (August 1965). "On Paul Goodman". The Atlantic Monthly216: pp. 88–91. ISSN1072-7825.