Jostein Nerbøvik was a Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 historian

Historian

A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

.

He was born in Volda

Volda

Volda is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of the Sunnmøre region. The administrative centre is the village of Volda. The municipality is located about south of the city of Ålesund.-General information:...

, and took his cand.philol. degree at the University of Oslo

University of Oslo

The University of Oslo , formerly The Royal Frederick University , is the oldest and largest university in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. The university was founded in 1811 and was modelled after the recently established University of Berlin...

. He first worked at Telemark University College

Telemark University College

Telemark University College is the fourth largest university college in Norway. The University College has about 5000 students. It is split between four different locations. The campuses are located in Bø, Notodden, Porsgrunn and Rauland.-Hierarchy:The university college is organised into four...

, then at Volda University College

Volda University College

Volda University College is a høgskole, a Norwegian state institution of higher education, in the village of Volda in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It was established on 1 August 1994, when the Møre og Romsdal regional college and the Volda Teachers College were merged together...

. He was appointed professor there in 1993, having taken the dr.philos. degree. He was also instrumental in establishing the Ivar Aasen Centre.

In 1973 Nerbøvik published his most well-known book; the general overview Norsk historie 1870-1905. It was later remade into Norsk historie 1860-1914. Eit bondesamfunn i oppbrot, published in 1999 as volume three of Samlagets norske historie

Norsk historie (Samlaget)

Norsk historie is a six-volume work about the general history of Norway. It was released in 1999 by Det Norske Samlaget.The books who became volumes four, five and six in the series had been published before, but the time spans covered in those books were modified slightly. Some of the books have...

, a series on Norwegian history spanning the years 800 to 2000. As the title indicates, Nerbøvik stressed the activity of the Norwegian rural populace in the democratization

Democratization

Democratization is the transition to a more democratic political regime. It may be the transition from an authoritarian regime to a full democracy, a transition from an authoritarian political system to a semi-democracy or transition from a semi-authoritarian political system to a democratic...

 process in the second half of the nineteenth century.

He died in March 2004 at Rikshospitalet

Rikshospitalet

Rikshospitalet is located in Oslo, Norway. From January 1, 2009, the hospital is part of Oslo University Hospital....

, having gone through a lengthy struggle with cancer.