[1] Thornton received a Bachelor of Arts in Latin from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1975, and a PhD in Comparative Literature in 1983.
He also appeared on ABC's Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher, and is a contributor to the conservative website CaliforniaRepublic.org.
He also subscribes to the 'Athens versus Jerusalem' thesis of Leo Strauss, in which the interplay between classical Greek ideologies of rationality and the Judaeo-Christian spiritual philosophies resulted in the creation of Western civilization.
This, in his opinion, weakens them against pressure from threats such as increasing immigration to Europe by Muslims that have higher birth rates than native Europeans.
"[3] His book Decline and Fall: Europe's Slow Motion Suicide has been described as part of the "Eurabia genre".