Professor Frank Dana.
Professor Frank Dana is a Mexican historian who holds the James Marshall Chair at the University of Mexico City. He is the editor of Recent Discoveries in the Cortez Collection (New York, 1958), which Robert Sobel cites in his chapter on the Great Northern War. He is also the author of The Cotton Culture of Jefferson: White Gold in the Sun (Mexico City, 1967), which Sobel cites in his chapter on the California Gold Rush. Both books appear in Sobel's Bibliography.
In 1972 Dana was chosen to write the Critique for Sobel's For Want of a Nail . . .. In his Critique, he accuses the Australian-born Sobel of exhibiting a bias for the Confederation of North America and Kramer Associates and against the United States of Mexico. He traces this bias back to Sobel's views on the opposing sides of the North American Rebellion.
Sobel may have intended for Frank Dana to be a descendant and namesake of the Massachusetts revolutionary Francis Dana.
Dana appears in a character in For All Nails, beginning with Academic Discourse.