This paper presents a unifying framework to construct low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes with associated Tanner graphs of desired girth. Towards this goal, we highlight the role that a certain square matrix that appears in the product of the parity-check matrix with its transpose has in the construction of codes with graphs of desired girth and further explore it in order to generate the set of necessary and sufficient conditions for a Tanner graph to have a given girth between 6 and 12. For each such girth, we present algorithms to construct codes of the desired girth and we show how to use them to compute the minimum necessary value of the lifting factor. For girth larger than 12, we show how to use multi-step graph lifting methods to deterministically modify codes in order to increase their girth. We also give a new perspective on LDPC protograph-based parity-check matrices by viewing them as rows of a parity-check matrix equal to the sum of certain permutation matrices and obtain an important connection between all protographs and those with variable nodes of degree 2. We also show that the results and methodology that we develop for the all-one protograph can be used and adapted to analyze the girth of the Tanner graph of any parity-check matrix and demonstrate how this can be done using a well-known irregular, multi-edge protograph specified by the NASA Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS). Throughout the paper, we exemplify our theoretical results with constructions of LDPC codes with Tanner graphs of any girth between 6 and 14 and give sufficient conditions for a multi-step lifted parity-check matrix to have girth between 14 and 22.