Son ouvrage principal est A History of Magic and Experimental Science (Une histoire de la magie et de la science expérimentale) en 8 volumes (1923–58), qui s'étend du début du christianisme au début de l'Europe moderne.
Il est le frère d'Edward L. Thorndike, psychologue et universitaire américain et d'Ashley Horace Thorndike(en), spécialiste de Shakespeare.
The Place of Magic in the Intellectual History of Europe (1905), The Columbia University Press, 110 p.
The History of Medieval Europe (1917, 3e éd. 1949)
A History of Magic and Experimental Science (1923–58)
vol. I: The first thirteen centuries of our era, part I. Book I The Roman Empire (Pliny, Senaca, Ptolemy, Galen, Vitruvius, Plutarch, Apuleius...), book II Early Christian Thought (Book of Enoch, Philo Judaeus, Gnostics...), book III The Early Middle Ages (Nectanebus, Arabic Occult Science, Latin Astrology and Divination, Gerbert...), 888 p., 1923
vol. II: The first thirteen centuries of our era, part II. Book IV The Twelfth Century (Peter Abelard, Adelard of Bath, Bernard Silvester...), book V The Thirteen Century (Michael Scot, William of Auvergne, Robert Grosseteste, Albertus Magnus...), 1024 p., 1923
vol. III: Fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, part I, 1934, XXVI-827 p.
vol. IV: Fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, part II, 1934, XVIII-767 p.
vol. V: The sixteenth century, part I, 1941, XXII-695 p. Book II Leonardo da Vinci, book VI Pomponazzi on incantations, book VIII Agrippa and occult philosophy, book IX Astrology of the early century, book XVIII The copernician theory
vol. VI: The sixteenth century, part II, 1941, XVIII-766 p.
vol. VII: The seventeenth century, part I, 1958, 695 p.
vol. VIII: The seventeenth century, part II, 1958, 808 p.
rééd. en 14 vol. Kessinger Publishing, 2003: I 592 p.; II 292 p. (Early Middle Ages) ; IV 740 p. (Thirteen century); X 456 p.; XI 352 p. (16th century); XII 708 p. (17th century); XIII 412 p. (17 th. century); XIV 420 p.
Science and Thought in the Fifteenth Century (1929).
The Sphere of Sacrobosco and its Commentators. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Pr., 1949 - traduction du De sphaera mundi (~1230) de Sacrobosco
