Though Thierry did not actually write romances, his conception of history recognised the dramatic element[1] (for instance, Les Martyrs dramatises the clash of the Roman Empire with Early Christianity).

Thierry's main ideas on the Germanic invasions, the Norman Conquest, the formation of the Communes, the gradual ascent of the nations towards free government and parliamentary institutions, are set forth in the articles he contributed to the Censeur européen (1817–20), and later in his Lettres sur l'histoire de France (1820).

It was written in a style at once precise and picturesque, and was dominated by a theory of Anglo-Saxon liberty resisting the invasions of northern barbarians, and eventually reviving in the parliamentary monarchy.

[1] Thierry ardently supported the July Revolution and the triumph of liberal ideas; at this time, too, his brother Amédée was appointed prefect, and he went to live with him for four years.

He now re-edited, under the title of Dix ans d'études historiques, his first essays in the Censeur européen and Le Courrier français (1834), and composed his Récits des temps mérovingiens, in which he vividly presented some of the stories of Gregory of Tours.

These Récits appeared first in the Revue des deux mondes; when collected in volume form, they were preceded by long Considerations sur l'histoire de France.

Helped by collaborators (including Bourquelot and Louandre) he compiled, in four volumes, Recueil des monuments inédits de l'histoire du Tiers Etat (1850–70), which, however, bear only on the northern part of France.

When Catholic writers criticised the "historical errors" in his writings he promised to correct them, and in the final edition of his Histoire de la Conquête his severe judgments of Vatican policies are eliminated.