One of Shaw's most prominent works was a two-volume history on the Ottoman Empire, titled "History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey". The first volume, subtitled "Empire of the Gazis: the Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Empire, 1280–1808", published in 1976, was met with generally mixed to negative reviews. Many faulted him for producing a work embellished with numerous historical errors and distortions. Colin Imber, a scholar on Ottoman history, noted in his review that both volumes were "so full of errors, half-truths, oversimplifications and inexactitudes that a non-specialist will find them positively misleading...When almost every page is a minefield of misinformation, a detailed review is impossible." Another reviewer, Victor L. Ménage, Professor of Turkish at the University of London, counted over 70 errors in the work and concluded, "One 'prejudice' that has vanished in the process is the respect for accuracy, clarity, and reasoned judgment."