Some of the book's writing originated in his notes for a seminar in urban affairs at
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. 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.
Random House published
People or Personnel: Decentralizing and the Mixed System in 1965. 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). This edition also includes three public memoranda as appendices: to the Poverty Program, the Office of Education, and the Ford Foundation. 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''. 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. 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.
People or Personnel manuscripts and
galley proof are held in
Syracuse University's
special collections.
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. == Reception ==