Laura McGrath traces the rhetorical history of discourses about young people and the environment in the United States, from the late-nineteenth century to the present, identifying common arguments employed by adults about the environment and examines how young people assimilate, critique, or repurpose assumptions evident in those arguments.

According to arguments evident in over a century of environmental discourse in the United States, young people represent hope for the future and can use their voices and energies to make a difference. This requires environmental, character, and civic education, which has taken various forms and has been promoted by environmental groups, scouting organizations and clubs, educators, politicians, federal and state agencies. Equally important are young people's own contributions to environmental discourses, which have taken various forms, including letters, essays, artwork, speeches, testimony, and social media posts.

The book devotes critical attention to these rhetorical artifacts, along with records of young people's contributions to early bird protection and anti-cruelty efforts; wildlife, tree, and natural resource conservation; anti-litter and recycling campaigns; and youth environmental activism. McGrath identifies tropes, assumptions, and patterns evident in the arguments of adults while also demonstrating how young people have engaged with these claims and narratives while claiming and exercising their own rhetorical agency