In 1972, Joel Levine pretty much started the corporate interlock trade with his ASR paper, "The Sphere of Influence". In 1984, he has published his comprehensive Atlas. It is in two volumes, with many multicolored maps. It is truly an atlas , using maps and data to describe networks, not geography. Patterns of corporate interlocks are reduced to maps by means of two unique algorithims (centroid scaling; frequency reconstruction scaling) that provide an overview of the relative positions of key corporations, groups of corporations, and directors.

The network includes 400 of the largest publicly held corporations of the world and their 8,000 directors . Who are the members of the Chicago group of corporations? Map and data show the group. What is the pattern of the Texas group? The map suggests that there is no Texas group; paths from Houston to Dallas are likely to pass through New York. What is the path from New York to Paris? Maps and data show the two groups and indicate intermediaries.

This 1st edition is based on primary and secondary sources available in January, 1980 . Volume 1 discusses the techniques and the data, and presents extensive maps of world interlocks and various sectors. It contains a lengthy table listing all of the corporations in the network and their boards of directors. Volume 2 is one table, listing each of the 8,000 directors, the corporations on whose boards they sit, and the other members of these boards. Thus these data (on 400 pages of tables) are organized for quick reference to corporation-to-corporation interlocks and to the indirect contacts by which directors may reach boards of other corporations.