A Point of View: Why don't Americans mark their Civil War like the British do WW2?

It's also easier for Britain, which is a relatively small and unified nation, with a strong central government, to stage nationally-inclusive displays of commemoration than it is for the United States, which is a country with a relatively weak federal government, that many people dislike and distrust, and which oversees a vast transcontinental empire extending from one ocean to another and beyond. Despite devolution and the Scottish referendum, it should still be possible for the inhabitants of Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland to join England in celebrating the anniversary of 1945, because all three nations boast strong military traditions, and many Ulstermen, Welshmen and Scotsmen served alongside Englishmen during WW2. By contrast, certain parts of the United States were completely unaffected by the Civil War, and neither Alaska, nor Hawaii nor Puerto Rico were at that time governed from Washington - Alaska belonged to Russia, Hawaii was an independent kingdom, and Puerto Rico was a Spanish colony, which means that the American Civil War is not part of their history at all.

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