Is Lynn Thorndike considered truthful with the history?
Oh, yes. We have a slanted picture of the middle ages. But once you read Thorndike, it becomes pretty clear.
Take the water mill. The Romans knew about it, but never did anything with it. During the middle ages, the water mill was used to power all sorts of machinery, including most familiarly to grind flour for bread. If you read Homer, you'll find references to 50 slave women grinding bread in the palace, using mortars and pestles. Basically, the water mill made it possible to gradually do away with slavery in the Christian west.
Until the development of the steam engine, the water mill powered all industrial development in the West. We have a 19th century sawmill across the road from us in Vermont which was powered by a water mill, as just one example. Water mills were used in the middle ages to full cloth, make horseshoe nails, and for all sorts of labor saving purposes.
Interestingly, much of this development took place in Cistercian monasteries. Similarly printing appeared at about the same time as the Reformation, but significantly it appeared in a monastery.